The time flowed as slowly as if Theo did nothing but counted every passing second.

To a degree, the pulsing of the pain in his now slightly wounded hand became his internal clock as he hid in the tiny hole within his stone column, equipped with nothing but a pickaxe in one hand and the building overlay already deployed.

'First mine the lock out, disconnect the payload from the column, then seal the hole just in case and hope for the best.'

Theo kept his breathing steady, refusing to let his anxiety or excitement affect it.

Yes, excitement.

And a two-fold one at that!

On one hand, Theo was excited to finally get this boss monster done and dealt with. After all, whether or not his trap would work… in one way or another, this whole adventure would finally come to an end.

On the other hand, though, Theo couldn't help but feel nervous.

'It was one thing to gamble for another reincarnation back when I first stepped foot in this place, but now?' Theo shook his head, exasperated by his own thoughts. 'After I've put in so much work? Only to risk getting a much more ordinary system, if any, in my next life, all the while assuming I wouldn't just… die?'

This time Theo's head moved further out to the sides only to end up with him gnashing his teeth and holding his breath for a bit to regulate the pace of his heart.

With the drops of his blood now trickling down his palm, Theo could swear his wound pulsated to the rhythm of his heart… the rhythm that, despite his best efforts, continued to slowly rise.

Then, right as Theo started to lose grip over his emotions, it happened.

[Threat level - light]

Finally, the prompt at the bottom of Theo's vision changed a bit. But this time, there were more changes than just the one to the system's detection notification.

[Forest Outskirts - Safe Zone - Within Range of Oilrat (level 147) (investigating) patrol route!]

And before Theo could even swallow his saliva…

[Threat level - high]

[Oilrat (level 147)(hunting)]

And then…

A silent yet strangely powerful voice at the lower end of the frequency Theo could hear suddenly reached his ears, only to start growing louder, fuller, more solid by the second.

A voice he could perfectly recognize by his heart, not only from the last time he heard it in this very same place… but also from the countless times he'd heard it appear in the games he used to play.

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[Threat level - Imminent]

The voice reached the peak of its crescendo, only to be joined by a full choir singing something in what sounded like ancient Latin, with the high sopranos now taking over the task of leading the melody while the bass that kicked the whole thing up now became but a background for it.

And as if all of that wasn't enough…

[Oilrat: Level 147]

[——————————————————————————————————]

The boss's health bar appeared again, proving that Theo's bait worked!

'This time, it's going to be different!'

Theo gritted his teeth while squeezing his fingers around the handle of his pickaxe, ready to dismantle the locking stone cube with four quick and short moves.

For now, however, he waited.

Thud…. Thud… Thud…

[Threat level - Critical!]

By now, the air suddenly grew heavier, as if the boss's mere presence was so powerful it managed to make it hard for Theo to breathe all on its own.

Or maybe it was the sound of its heavy body now crashing through the relatively narrow tunnel?

'This definitely didn't sound like an attempt to…'

Crack!

The sound changed. And before Theo could as much as wink…

Thump!

In Theo's design, once the Oilrat stepped upon the wooden platform, its lone support—the single wooden pillar—was supposed to lose its grip on the two lone blocks of dirt it was pressed against, turning the whole platform like a wheel and dropping the unsuspecting boss in the hole Theo prepared in advance.

Judging from the sound, however, rather than just turning on the axis of the wooden beam, the whole platform had collapsed under the added weight of the Oilrat, with the beam breaking before it could fully turn!

'NOW!'

Springing into action, Theo smacked the locking stone with his pick.

[Mining: 22%]

[Mining: 44%]

[Mining: 66%]

[Mining: 88%]

[Mining: Completed!]

[Obtained: Stone Block x1]

WHOOSH!

Once again, the sound changed. After all, this time it wasn't just a thin layer of wood cracking apart only to then follow the Oilrat down to Theo's hole.

This time, it was several tens of tons' worth of stone suddenly losing its only support, only to come crashing down, with nothing but Theo's narrow column to keep it in place!

For Theo, hidden within said column, the whole world turned dark right as his hideout started to devilishly shake.

But that, he expected. After all, this column, the very same place he had no other choice but to pick for his hideout, was the axis on which the stone payload was supposed to slide down into the hole!

Still, to know something was about to happen and then to witness it from as close as physically possible…

Thankfully, the whole ordeal lasted only a single instant, with the massive weight of the stone payload accelerating to its terminal velocity pretty much right away, making its fall way too short for Theo to spare more than just a single thought about it.

What came next, however, was only worse.

CRACKABOOM!

Theo's payload was a perfect fit for the shape of his hole. And so, when it finally came crashing down, the whole world around the young man appeared to just… crack, as if the air trapped by the falling weight reached the levels of condensation only seen in explosives.

But the devilish shaking, the deafening noise of the falling payload…

All of those didn't matter in the slightest, regardless of how terrifying they were.

With the lone hole Theo left behind now firmly sealed, Theo pressed his hands against the sides of his narrow hideout to lock himself in place throughout the whole thing… but all of his attention wasn't on the real world around him but the one and only part of his vision that mattered.

And yet, despite his trap working perfectly…

The boss's health bar didn't change.

'Did it fail?' Theo thought, a cold shiver moving up his spine as he imagined the possibility of the Oilrat somehow tripping the trap before actually stepping into it, only to now leave Theo hidden within the narrow column of stone, with no other place to go but down underground by digging through the column's base.

Yet, right as Theo's heart was about to jump out of his chest…

[————————————————————————————————//]

[——————————————————————————————////]

[————————————————————————————//////]

[——————————————————————————////////]

Bit by bit, at the speed of about two ticks per second, the boss's health bar… started to decrease!