NDK Error When Compiling a Shared Library (.so): executing external native build for cmake

I was in the middle of adding a C++ shared library to Flutter and figured I'd try writing a native Java version first, and then I ran into this cursed problem😱😱😱.

bug: Error > "executing external native build for cmake"

At first I assumed it was some syntax issue in CMakeLists.txt, but after carefully rewriting it, the problem was still there.

I followed this post ↗ hoping it might help, but it still died halfway through with the same error.
HMMMM🤔...... In between I tweaked build.gradle and cmake every which way, and no matter what I tried, it just wouldn't compile.

Scrolling through the comments, I found this fix ↗.
Downgrading my gradle version to 3.2.1 actually got it to compile

My guess is the SDK tools were missing some dependencies~ But I have zero intention of getting to the bottom of it. Back to grinding away as a code laborer. Fixing this was only where the nightmare began.