'Threat level, clear. Surroundings, clear…'

Theo did a quick sweep of his surroundings, knowing better than to rely on just his system.

The experience at the foot of the gate was the greatest proof that while great, his system might not be perfect.

There was no notification about the barrier that stopped him nor about any sort of attack he ended up suffering because of it.

'In other words, whatever that nauseating feeling was, it didn't register in the system. And that means I can't just take it easy to fully rely on it, can I?'

Still, when it came to checking Theo's surroundings, it appeared that the system was just good enough, with the subroutine's detection matching the results of Theo's personal observation.

And with that, there was absolutely nothing left to stop Theo from putting his plans into action.

'First, the tunnel,' Theo thought as he switched over to the construction overlay of his vision, whipping out the first stack of stone blocks.

'I saw how big that Oilrat is, so… two meters high, six meters wide should be enough.'

There was a chance that if the tunnel were too narrow, the rat wouldn't dare to haphazardly enter it. On the other hand, if it were too wide and spacious, the material requirements for constructing it would grow at a pace Theo didn't even want to imagine or calculate.

And so, settling on the golden middle between those two extremes, he started the arduous task of selecting the location, dropping the block of stone, and then confirming the process, only to select another location and do it all over again.

'For now, let's use the dirt for the floor, although it could be a good idea to replace a block just below the floor with stone too…'

Even before finishing up the tunnel, Theo already started to ponder over ways of improving his design.

'Or not,' he then ended up shaking his head, daring not to openly use his voice while outside. 'This place only has to serve its purpose once, only to then grow obsolete the moment the job's finished. What would be the point of overengineering it, then?'

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Soon, the first half of a meter of the tunnel's planned eight meters of length turned from mere numbers in Theo's inventory into an actual arch, just high enough for a human - or an Oilrat - to comfortably walk below.

From then on, the task of building grew a little bit easier, with Theo simply switching to the hiding hole five blocks away from the original spot, only to then add blocks to the already existing frame.

In this way, building the hoarding tunnel of the trap took Theo but a fraction of the time he was expecting the task to take, allowing him to move on to the next part of the project - the trap hall.

'Now, this is going to be quite a lot bigger, won't it?' Theo thought as he merely imagined the actual meat of the trap appearing out in the real world.

First, he had to build a hole massive enough for the boss to be unable to jump out of it. Then, he had to replace all of its walls with stone to make sure that damned rat couldn't just climb out of it, doing the same to the floors to stop it from digging its way out.

But that, while the most time-consuming part of the process, was there merely to ensure the Oilrat would stay in place long enough for Theo's trap to spring up… Or rather, for Theo to remove a single, conveniently placed block and send a huge pillar of raw stone crushing down right on top of that bastard of a rat's head!

'I can leave building the payload for later. Right now, just making the trap hall should be enough.'

Between the hidden hole for the boss to drop in and the massive chunk of stone ready to drop down, there were still three more elements just to this room alone that Theo had to prepare.

First, he needed a trap-door mechanism, something that would abuse the edge between his subroutines and the laws of the world around him that still enforced their authority. Then, he needed to build a wall all around this place to ensure the rat would have no other choice but to step on the trap. Lastly, he needed to complete one test to help him determine just how he was going to drop tens of tonnes of stone down on that monster's unsuspecting head!

'But for that test, I need space. And I'm going to have more than enough space once I dig the trapping hole out. And that means…'

Theo took his sweet time figuring out the most optimal progression for his project before finally settling on the proper way for him to progress.

'First, the containment structure,' Theo thought as he laid out the frame for a room fifteen by fifteen blocks, amounting to seven and a half meters squared of trapping space.

'No… Now that I look at it…' Theo squinted his eyes… only to sigh out and then expand the frame to double its original size.

'Yeah, that's more like it,' Theo thought now that the insides of the containment structure now stretched out seven meters in every cardinal direction from its most central block. 'It's going to be hell to finish up, but…'

Theo's eyes habitually dropped down to the bottom of his vision, only to see that the "no threats" part of his threat detection now changed to "Threat Level: Low."

'But for now, I guess it's time for me to take some rest,' Theo thought, only to rush right back into his hole, seal its entrance, and then dig down a few blocks just for a good measure. 'And if luck will have it, by the next evening...'

Theo clenched his hands into fists as fires of determination once again ignited in his eyes.

'By the next evening, this whole place will turn into that bastard's tomb!'