"So that's it," Theo muttered to himself as seconds continued to pass, his mory of Callane's expression quickly fading from his mind.
It was a process so rapid, it couldn't be natural. There was a chance it was just another avenue through which this barrier isolated one part of the world from others by literally erasing the mory—or, at the very least, the awareness—of those on one side from those stuck on the other.
Yet, from the very mont Theo took notice of it happening, a ntal defensive chanism kicked in in his brain, making him stubbornly refuse to forget even the tiniest detail of his extrely recent encounter.
And, between God and Truth, Theo was way too much of a self-reflectively emotional person to ever hope to forget about Callane.
After all, even if he physically did it before with her, and even if his forr self did it with soone else, when it ca to Theo's current psyche?
Callane was his first.
The first woman to pay him more attention than what would be the limit of professional courtesy back on Earth. The first woman to actively engage with him in conversation, actively trying to clash her own ideas with his as opposed to either limiting herself to just aningless small talk or outright using it to cut the whole conversation short.
And, above all, she was the first woman Theo had the mory of sleeping with. As immature and naive as it could be, that experience still left a deep mark on Theo's soul, making Callane soone he, quite literally, was unable to forget even if he wished to.
"Okay," Theo raised his hands and slapped his cheeks, using the burst of stinging pain to clear his mind. "That's enough self-reflection. If I want to make the ti I just promised to make," he muttered to himself as he turned on his heel, "then I don't have even a mont to waste!"
During his return back to his claim, Theo had already ford a proper plan for how to progress from what he had to what he needed. A plan that involved not only building new factories to get the items he needed—like in the case of the reinforced industrial beams required for the belt upgrade—but also upgrading the existing layouts, with the improved belts allowing them to finally reach their peak possible efficiency.
'A throughput below a hundred percent is a sign of waste. A waste that will stack upon itself and accumulate with every step there is in the process! And here?'
Theo smiled to himself.
'Here, we do not waste!'
If one of Theo's miners could produce two hundred ore while his tier-one belts could only move sixty pieces of it within the sa ti fra, then a whopping hundred and forty units of ore would be wasted per minute.
Coupling that with how Theo could now also upgrade all of his miners, he could even stick to the already exploited sources of iron, copper, and coal ores, rely by upgrading their miners and then siphoning away all the ore that his first, makeshift plan wouldn't have the throughput to process.
"Speaking of the ores," Theo quickly fell back into the habit of talking to himself, his sense of loneliness only more profound now that he had interacted with other people for a bit. "It's also high ti to go get my hands on that rich-stone deposit, especially with how that damned monster is gone now."
While there was a chance the monster that attacked Theo's claim and the monsters whose nests Theo disturbed during one of his expeditions weren't one and the sa… what were the chances of two different monsters not only bearing the sa chief voiderling na but also the exact sa level?
'With the prospect of the nearest rich-stone deposit now turning from sothing Theo stashed at the very back of his mind into yet another integral elent of his plans, Theo could finally sigh a short sigh of relief.
This late realization, one he made right as he scaled the outer wall to his claim, allowed him to finally move on from using his stockpile of rich-stone in lieu of a properly set-up miner. And while the current design saved on space, ti necessary to build a proper beltway, and then the energy costs of actually running the miners…
Just the fact that it could stop was a deal-breaker for the young man.
'Before I even move to dealing with the rich-stone, though…'
Theo's steps hastened as he soon started to jog through a seemingly random path in the forest, only for said jog to soon turn into a dash, then a proper run, only to then end up rushing ahead as if his life depended on it.
And while, to a degree, that was certainly a true statent, rather than worry for his own safety, Theo's hurry ca from sowhere else.
It ca from his sense of obligation to stay true to the word he gave the girl.
For that to happen, though, Theo still had to advance his entire factory to the next level. And with the makeshift manner in which he went through the last factory advancent… those two, three days that he claid doing so would take didn't seem all that long anymore.
'Crap, I'm already getting distracted,' Theo thought as he pushed his way through the gate of his inner wall, only to end up jumping straight into the underground, jumping down only one step at a ti due to the spiral structure of the staircase.
Yet, the very mont Theo stood down on the crafted-stone floor of his underground outpost, a second wave of nostalgia—this ti mixing with amusent—filled his soul.
Earlier, he had to cope with the idea of never seeing this place again, turning the fruits of his great work into but a distant mory of what once was.
Now, though?
Now, Theo's nostalgia for the bygone tis shifted, changed its focus, making him recall all the tiniest details of Callane's face, her sll, her manner of stepping forth…
"Crap…" Cursing under his breath, Theo shook his head yet again before gritting his teeth to the point his jaws actually started to hurt. "Rather than thinking about the past…"
Wasting no more ti, Theo went through the underground outpost before squeezing into the entrance of his factory room.
And standing above all the machines on the floor below, watching how items continued to move on the belts from one machine to the other, only to end up spat out as a whole new item…
"In the end, I made the right choice," Theo allowed himself but a single mont of another introspection as his mouth curved into a small smile at the sight. "This is where I ought to be, not in so sort of palaces that awaited on the other side!"
A grin on his face vanished as quickly as it appeared as the weight of the task ahead started to loom over his shoulders again, reminding him how his ti was now limited not only by the coming monster invasion… but also by the promise he gave Callane, whether she could still hear it or not.
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