Chương 108: 2-6 Error handling

What followed for Josef was by far the driest and most tedious bit of work since he had come to Aurum. The notifications dumped on him measured not in the dozens, or even hundreds. No, there were thousands of them, coming in a variety of colors and different levels of readability. Did Lapis know the extent of what he had received, which was more than the system usually shared?

Trying futilely to convince the system to automate the process somewhat, throwing out unreadable or downright empty notifications, he was left with no choice but to handle all of it manually. Sitting with crossed legs on the cool black stone of his oasis, Josef idly petted his partner in crime, Nibbles, who was visibly oblivious to the world, with one hand. Hopefully, nobody needed the furry little healer, because he was not going to let his familiar go anytime soon. Not until he had finished sorting this mess.

The motion he settled on felt uncomfortably familiar as he accepted the long list of messages, only to swat away the useless ones to one side while swiping the keepers to the other. However, he also added a third outcome to his choice. The ones he wanted to keep for special investigation, as they contained information related to the system itself. His first observation had proven to have been remarkably on point. There were genuine error messages mixed in there! Unexpected Error: Clawshake Protocol interrupted.

Heart- to Mothernode connection has encountered an irrecoverable mana-loss phenomenon. Temporary Information Backup - Protocol has been initiated. Warning: Default suspension measures have been overridden: // Can't pause functionality. Needs to keep running. Something told Josef that he wasn't supposed to get his hands on that kind of data. It was like an exclusive look behind the scenes!

Giddy with the excitement of a child who had found the forbidden cookie jar, he kept his focus on these notifications as he sorted the standard fare without more than a quick glance. Sure, the chance of him actually getting something out of these was probably low, but some curiosities just transcended instant gratification! Aside from that, he genuinely didn't want to find out how Lapis would react if she caught him red-handed with this kind of information.

And right now, she was about as dead to the world as possible, since he had only just drained her makeshift body. Unfortunately, most of the system's logs were rather useless to him, as even those that weren't completely broken at a glance often only contained confusing combinations of numbers and symbols that told him absolutely nothing. He guessed those were some kind of raw data, but couldn't do anything to check that thesis. There was also a ridiculous amount of duplicates, which he tried to stack together.

However, he didn't take the time to compare them down to the last symbol. The initial error that caught his eyes was also among those numbers, having recurred with some regularity. A large number was also plainly unreadable. Not because of any damage, but because the contents didn't translate for him. At least Josef was pretty sure what he was looking at was some kind of language. It contained repeating sets of symbols and spaces that likely denoted words, so he was fairly confident in his guess.

Which raised the question of why a translation skill for dragons didn't contain the language they used for their own system. And if it wasn't some stupid oversight along the lines of 'all dragons can read that, why add it in', then that left the far more somber conclusion that it was left out on purpose. Because nobody was supposed to be able to read it. Meaning he really shouldn't have access to this. Ultimately, he did find another breadcrumb on why he received this dump in the first place.

Writing Error: TIB-Protocol could not write data to secure location. Heart Data Locket has returned the following error: // No time for this. Shouldn't break anything. Whatever. Fallback measures initiated: Writing to Default Output Channel. Well, his class had always had that unfortunate beta version number attached to it. Now he was staring at proof that the thing beating in his chest was a rush job.

Still, considering that Lapis was probably already getting overtaken by the Stillness at that point, he couldn't fault her for a bit of messy programming. And that was the only thing he could call this after seeing those messages. Not only was the system like a computer program running on mana, but the administrative staff were giant winged lizards! He couldn't help but imagine Lapis in a trim suit and glasses, typing away on a much too small keyboard, mumbling about a deadline.

The laughter that shook Josef at that realization was so intense, Nibbles had to jump off to avoid being shaken silly. However, that didn't prevent the rodent from joining in, even though he didn't know the reason for it. Finally, he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Sorry, Nibbles, but I really needed that."

"Nibbles happy when boss happy!" his familiar squeaked, wrapping his little paws around his knee in a hug. Those words earned the rat a proper hug in return, as well as more petting. Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end at some point. While Josef spent some more time brooding over those messages, he couldn't glean much more at the moment. Not unless he figured out how to read that mysterious language.

"You should probably get back out there. We wouldn't want to leave any patients hanging." It was a legitimate concern, considering the whole clinic didn't really run without Nibbles for the time being. And unfortunately, there was no telling how time inside his domain currently worked compared to the outside. It was better to be safe and not keep his familiar from working for too long.

After a sad squeak and another hug, Nibbles disappeared from the domain, a process that was remarkably smooth, considering he wasn't consciously controlling his physical body at the moment. Giving his familiar free rein while not forcefully holding him in his domain was enough to make it happen. With his solitude restored, Josef decided on one last safety measure, in case the dragoness was aware of the type of notifications had received.

Not knowing whether Lapis, as a dragon, could somehow check his messages, he wanted to create his own backup. Thus, he resolved to create a copy of the data within his domain, allowing him to peruse it at his own leisure. Doing so gave him another headache, but was otherwise surprisingly simple. Shaking his head, Josef had to correct himself. Doing things in his domain was always easy, it was supposed to be, and it was only his own demeanor that had held him back before.

His earlier outburst had opened his eyes to how malleable this realm was to his will, as long as he demanded, not requested, those changes. That was how he soon found himself with a compact representation of all the notifications he wanted to store. He had created Aurum's very first floppy disk. The shape was, of course, only decorative, because all he needed to do was touch it to access the information within.

Then, he willed his very first shovel back into existence, and buried the thing under the largest palm sprout. After all, Lapis was allergic to being nice, so she would never check under his friendship tree! Satisfied with his security measures, Josef wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and finally turned to inspect his own gains. Since it had been quite a while since he could last do so, he focused on pulling up his own status. Error: Status synchronicity invalidated. Update local template to refresh.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. // Should automate this if I have time left"Yeah, Lapis, you really should have automated that," he grumbled about the newfound inconvenience. Clearly, the dragoness hadn't found the time even for issues that poked her right in the nose. And now he had gained another unintended message, just as he had stored the others. With a sigh, he dismissed this one completely, as he didn't see the worth in keeping it.

At least it left him with a solid idea on how to fix his status sheet situation. He just needed to force a change to get things going again. Fortunately, he had just the notification to accomplish that. Level 39 -> 46 14 Free attribute points. 5 Strength, 9 Dexterity, 15 Endurance, 15 Intelligence, 14 Wisdom and 6 Charisma gained Full seven levels since the last time he checked, which was before their full blown war against Sanctum.

It was undoubtedly a ridiculous jump for any other resident of Aurum, but going through the equivalent of two boss fights, the increase still felt lacking, considering that bishop's strength. Then again, only one of those fights ended with killing his opponent, as Onyx was still alive and breathing. So far, it didn't look like the system rewarded peaceful solutions, so he probably lost a lot of growth there. Not that Josef minded, because he valued his newest companion far more than a handful of levels.

Averaging those attribute growths painted a somewhat average picture. Progressing explosively by repeatedly fighting above his own weight class had certainly reduced the strength he could build up between levels. At least this approach had also left him with many free points to spend. Exactly what he needed. 9 Intelligence and 5 Wisdom gained The decision to take Intelligence came easily, since he would need to regain a lot more of his mana if he wanted to go back to proper spell-casting.

Seeing as his oasis swelled the moment he made the selection, he knew it was the correct choice. Wisdom, if he had interpreted things correctly, should help within his domain. One attribute to put pressure into the pipes, another to clean up the blockage. With his free points assigned, his status finally answered. Name Josef Trach Level 46 Class L. A. P. I. S. Type <Summoner> v0.

9b Body ☆☆☆☆☆ Mana Vessel(Pinnacle) Heart ☆☆☆☆☆ Gluttonous Manaheart (Moderate) Health 285/ 285 (948) Mana 686/ 686 (3430) Manaregeneration 126 (630) / minute Strength 22 + 10 Intelligence 83 + 15 Dexterity 39 + 40 Wisdom 62 + 28 Endurance 69 + 10 Charisma 22 + 12 Affinities ★☆☆☆☆ Chaos (Moderate) ☆☆☆ Earth (Exceptional) ☆☆☆☆ Water (Moderate) ☆☆☆☆ Restoration (Inferior) ☆☆☆ Summoning (Pinnacle) ✩✩ Space (Exceptional) Spells ☆☆☆☆☆ Grasping Waters (Advanced) ☆☆☆☆ Greater Heal (Pinnacle) ☆☆☆☆ Summon Familiar (Inferior) | 4/4 ☆☆☆ Flash (Moderate) ☆☆☆☆ Resplendent Regeneration (Inferior) ☆☆☆☆☆ Mana Stream (Pinnacle) ☆☆☆ Mass Blink (Advanced) ☆☆☆☆ Water Shot (Exceptional) ✩✩✩✩ Water Jet (Advanced) Skills ☆☆☆☆☆ Draconic Thesaurus (Pinnacle) 225cm³ ☆☆☆☆☆ Portable Hoard (Pinnacle) ☆☆☆☆ Seeker's Sight (Exceptional) ☆☆☆ Fluid Movement (Pinnacle) ☆☆☆☆ Teacher's Exchange (Inferior) ☆☆☆☆ Empowered Link (Pinnacle) ✩✩✩✩✩ Meditation (Pinnacle) Resistances ✩✩✩ Mental Resistance (Pinnacle) ☆☆ Acid Resistance (Moderate) ☆☆☆☆ Blunt Resistance (Inferior) Feats Transmigrator, Dragon's Heartstone, Kingslayer, System Youngling, Prodigious Healer, Demonslayer - Gluttony With but a glance, the bright red elephant in the room became impossible to ignore.

he had fucked his body and heart up so utterly, even his status had to update its numbers. Seeing this also removed all lingering doubts about Onyx's level displaying such a color. It was how the system marked something that was reduced below its usual standard. Going by the numbers next to his health and mana, his limitations were substantial, removing more than half of his possible capacity.

Josef couldn't recall the exact amounts, but he felt like this was comparable, if not less, than he had on the day the expedition started. He felt much weaker than that, though. And if this was him being on the mend, then he didn't want to know how those numbers looked right at the end of their fight against Thaladur. At least the total amount of mana he would have available after recovering looked comfortingly large.

For now, he skimmed over the changes in his status and compared them with the notifications he had set aside, as if he were matching puzzle pieces. ✩✩✩ Mental Resistance (Advanced) -> (Pinnacle) ☆☆☆ Blunt Resistance (Moderate) -> ☆☆☆☆ Blunt Resistance (Inferior) His two improved resistances were quickly pushed to the side, because there was just no interesting change in their growth. Though it was notable that Onyx had apparently pummeled him hard enough to send him up an entire rank.

That was a promising, if terrifying, outlook for his future training. If only there was a note on why a specific growth had happened, because he would have liked to know where that push to his Mental Resistance had even come from. Logically, it must have been from something Thaladur had done, since he had displayed such an ability back when the expedition had first gathered. However, Josef noted no such influence during their fight. Maybe the effect was too small to really affect him?

But just as his eyes were ready to move on from that part of the sheet, they snapped downwards, hooked by another change he had almost missed. Feat Upgraded: <System Dragonet> -> <System Youngling> The system is the birthright of dragons. You have realized a creative vision to change your interface. By force of your will, a system resource has been rooted within your domain. <redacted> has noticed you. Unlocks: +10 to all Attributes Was this the dragon equivalent of becoming a teenager?

At least his attitude towards Lapis was fitting now. It also explained those pretty doubly digit bonuses on all of his attributes. Creating his pond-sized oasis was apparently a significant step for a growing dragon. However, that left him with not one, but two grave questions. Could he also link his health to his domain for a larger boost? And more importantly, who was that redacted entity noticing him? That little change from merely watching over him hadn't escaped Josef.

As with many things related to dragons, it was disconcerting, but something he was powerless to do anything about. He'd just continue on and improvise if something came of it. Hopefully, whoever they were wouldn't mind his little stash of data. Dismissing his concerns to leave them for future-Josef, he continued exploring his status. Which part should he look into next?