Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 48: Where are the monsters’ rights activists where they are needed the most?!

"Did it work?!"

Turning around as soon as he fell down onto the cold stones of the floor, Theo stared at the seal he had just erected, waiting to see if it would start glowing hot.

It took him an actual while, however, to realize that whether the beast continued to press its advantage wasn’t the only way for him to figure out whether he had managed to end the fight or not.

Or, to be more precise, the fact that this was still a question pretty much was an answer in its own right.

’No notification means…’ Just to be sure, Theo looked down… ’And the health bar is still there…’

On one hand, Theo felt like just screaming out in frustration.

His elaborate plan of coaxing the beast to stay on its course to buy himself enough time to set up the ballista, the close-up shot with that heavy lancea, even how there was virtually no chance for Theo to miss…

All of those things resulted in the monster losing a measly third of its health!

’Should I just rinse and repeat it?’ Theo took a moment to consider the option, only to then retreat a few more steps and apply two more layers of stone when he saw the initial one slowly starting to glow red.

Then, he shook his head as he bit down on his bottom lip.

Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.

’No, it’s too smart to fall for the same trick again. But if that’s the case…’

Following his thoughts, Theo looked up to where he imagined one of his towers would rise high up to the sky.

"Is collapsing one of the towers really my only option?"

He could still run… but that was the absolute last resort since it meant—by all intents and purposes—giving up on his claim and thus his manor with all the benefits it already offered.

’Or is there any other way…’

Stuck in the current situation, Theo resorted to what he should’ve done quite a while ago.

Seeing no way out of his current predicament… he simply sought inspiration by looking through all the items he currently had access to.

A motion he really should’ve resorted to quite a long time ago, especially since the Wrathhound suddenly exploded in flames as it gained the ability to melt through literal stone.

And it was all thanks to just two items that sat safely within the storage of Theo’s mansion. And while one of those items occupied quite the important spot in Theo’s mind due to where it came from, the other one…

Was quite literally the resource he thought the most about in the recent past!

’It can melt stone, but…’ Theo gulped down his saliva as the brutality of the plan that had just hatched in his mind dawned on him. ’Yeah, that’s it!’

Daring not to question his own choices or sanity, Theo didn’t dare to waste his time either. And so, by pooling together all the reserves of iron that he had and even going as far as to create a whole new crafting table… he managed to create a total of four blocks of solid iron, blocks that he then promptly used to replace the stone roof of his current hiding spot.

’Now, for the actual trap…’

By now, the air was so hot it stung Theo’s lungs whenever he took a breath while making him sweat literal bullets. To make matters worse, his thirst meter was rapidly falling at a visible rate, forcing him to take a short break to consume an unprocessed berry twice!

Still, the task this time was much simpler than when Theo decided to go with the ballista route.

As such, Theo started by breaking the stone roof open and then climbing out for just the moment he needed to add another layer of stone on top of the part where he had used iron blocks for the roof. Then, he quickly went back into the ditch before mining out the stone floor, then digging out a layer of dirt underneath, all to then fill it back with stone.

’Now, to create a proper bath…’

Smiling at his own, vicious thoughts, Theo filled the resulting one-block-deep ditch with blocks of foliage before pulling the other item that he had decided to rely on—one of the very few items that he didn’t mine, harvest, or craft himself.

The infinite oilsack was one of the few loot drops Theo got from defeating the Oilrat. And while he never found the opportunity to use it… what could be better timing than right now?

"I really hope this works because if it doesn’t…"

Before Theo could even voice his concerns or actually put the idea of collapsing one of his towers into actual, spoken words, he manifested the waterskin-like object out of thin air before undoing the knot that kept it closed and then leaning it over the bedding of leaves he had just created.

The oil that flowed out of the sack was sickly green in color, unlike anything Theo had ever seen in his life before—maybe with the exception of some of those fancier oils that came infused with all sorts of herbs and a price tag that made them more fitting for a gift than an actual ingredient one would supply their kitchen with.

Still, its consistency, viscosity, even the general feel it gave off… it was all exactly as Theo would expect an oil to be.

Before he could pour more than just a few liters of it into the bed of leaves, though, the stone seal ahead… finally started to glow red yet again. And judging from what Theo could tell from experience… its hue continued to deepen at a rather faster rate than before!

"Well, that’s my cue to get the fuck out of here, I guess," he muttered to himself, only to step back right outside of the bedding, block the way out with two blocks of stone, and then… repeat the process two more times, all the way to the point where he reached the hole in the roof he had left from before.

"That takes care of the air intake. And all that’s left for me now…" Theo whispered as he undid the roof at yet another point before pulling himself out and then dashing to the other side of the place’s perimeter, where rather than ditching back down into the trench, Theo went inside his warding tower instead, only allowing himself to breathe out in relief once he closed its sturdy, metal-reinforced door behind himself.

"All that’s left for me is to…"

REEEEEEEEEEEE

An extremely loud cry suddenly filled the air, a cry so filled with pain and terror, Theo suddenly felt slightly guilty about the methods he had used to quite possibly deal with the last of the beasts.

A cry… that soon cut short as the air in the area started to settle and the last of the health bars vanished from the overlay on Theo’s vision, replaced by a slew of new and old notifications.

[Congratulations! You’ve defeated the first challenger!]

Whatever sense of guilt Theo had over the brutal method he used to deal with the last of the Wrathhound, however… all of it paled when he saw the very second notification after the obligatory one that proved the success of his plan, as cinematic as it might be, especially when compared to using the siege ballista to deal with the threat.

[Congratulations! You’ve now qualified for the system’s advancement!]