Wilderness Survival with Druid System

Chapter 94: Chapter 5: Rest

Amid Chen Wen’s constant praises, Du Feng shared his fish-killing technique wholeheartedly.

”My senior apprentice brother, he has been cleaning fish at Da Run Fa for twenty years, has handled all sorts of strange and peculiar fish!”

Du Feng boasted, ”Although I’m not as skilled as my senior brother, cleaning this kind of fish is no big deal—I don’t even blink an eye!”

Chen Wen found a blind spot: ”Then don’t your eyes get dry?”

Du Feng: ...

”Dry or not, that’s a minor issue!”

With a grand gesture, Du Feng continued, ”Just watch me take care of it!”

Though he boasted a lot, Du Feng’s skills were quite competent.

He held the knife steadily and began cutting the fish skin at the wound where Chen Wen’s spear hit.

The movements weren’t completely fluid, but Chen Wen still benefited from them.

After Du Feng peeled off one side of the skin,

Chen Wen took over the knife, replacing Du Feng’s position.

Under Du Feng’s guidance, Chen Wen gradually moved from being clumsy to proficient.

”The young can be taught well!”

Du Feng, uncharacteristically, quoted some literati wisdom.

”Oh, Du, you even know that phrase?”

”What do I know, I dropped out of middle school. That’s something my master used to say often.”

”Wow? Your master was quite the cultured person?”

Du Feng chuckled, ”He was a singer! He’d repeat those lines over and over, and the other was a curse—’Woe unto you, my unwise!’ My master’s master would often curse him with that, so he remembered it, and wouldn’t you know it? It got passed down to me.”

”Du, is the master still around?”

”Of course, he knew about this time I came and even said he wanted to watch the live stream.”

”...”

”...Oh crap!”

Du Feng suddenly thought of something and slapped his forehead.

Chen Wen, after completely peeling the fish skin, burst out laughing: ”Du, you truly are ’Woe unto you, my unwise!’ Haha, you handle the innards!”

...

Back at the camp.

Seeing the slightly annoyed Du Feng, everyone asked Chen Wen what had happened.

Chen Wen told everyone the whole story, and they all laughed.

”Du, that’s called schism, be careful not to get excommunicated when you go back!”

Wang Zhi joked.

Du Feng couldn’t help but say, ”Nonsense, it’s just a cook’s business, how can that count as schism? We chefs and apprentices have our own affairs...”

Hearing this, the camp was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Joking aside, and amidst the fun,

Du Feng still seriously dealt with the triggerfish and set the tone for lunch.

Steamed cassava paired with triggerfish bone broth and grilled fish fillets.

Zhang Hu brought back a lot of fresh seafood.

Du Feng processed these seafood and then grilled them beside the campfire.

It’s worth mentioning that, at Du Feng’s request, Gan Tieshan made a bamboo steamer rack.

This rack freed everyone from sticky cassava porridge.

Now, the cassava was steamed, laid on banana leaves, with a fragrance of bananas.

The taste, as Chen Wen put it, was: terrestrial social death!

Chen Wen first tasted the triggerfish.

The taste was alright, not as bad as expected, and the texture was somewhat like beef.

[Targeting the creation of nature—triggerfish, commencing raid!]

[Raiding... Raid complete!]

[Please choose one from the following three entries]

[Buckteeth (Blue): Your teeth undergo abnormal changes, becoming less aesthetic]

[Note: What’s wrong with buckteeth? Take a bite from me!—Triggerfish]

[Nest Defense (Blue): You tend to stay around the camp, with a slight increase in alertness and speed, and strength when in camp.]

[Note: Don’t think about approaching my home!—Triggerfish]

[Sturdy Teeth (Purple): Your teeth become sturdier, able to chew harder things, and are less prone to injury]

[Note: Good teeth are built from bites!—Triggerfish]

[Please make a choice within one minute or abandon! Failure to choose will automatically select the first entry!]

The entries for the Titan Triggerfish were quite interesting.

Chen Wen was initially inclined to choose [Nest Defense], as it greatly aids early survival preparation.

If used for surviving later, it would definitely be advantageous for early staging.

But the continuous mention of small increments made Chen Wen hesitate.

Because the system’s ”small increments” might be really small!

Eventually, Chen Wen chose the purple [Sturdy Teeth].

Strengthening the teeth works too.

After selecting the entry,

Chen Wen, while no one was paying attention, picked up a fish bone and put it in his mouth to chew.

The hard fish bone quickly crumbled under Chen Wen’s good teeth and was swallowed.

Very hard!

Chen Wen’s eyes brightened.

This entry turned his teeth into weapon-grade assets!

It also paired well with the previously acquired [Gizzard].

These two had synergy, huh!

Chen Wen couldn’t help but think.

Almost all the remaining seafood had been eaten before.

Except for a coconut conch.

This was found by Zhang Hu in the weir trap.

The taste of the coconut conch was similar to other sea snails.

Whatever flavor the seasoning was, so was it.

The texture was likewise similar, leaving Chen Wen unimpressed.

After eating the conch, the entries emerged as well.

[Targeting the creation of nature—coconut conch, commencing raid!]

[Raiding... Raid complete!]

[Please choose one from the following three entries]

[Pearl Depository (Purple): You can nurture pearls within your body]

[Note: Top-tier pearl: Refers to the top-grade rare pearls, that’s my beautiful pearl!—Coconut Conch]

[Retardation (Blue): Your movements slow down, actions are more sluggish]

[Note: We sea snails are like that, each slower than the last!—Coconut Conch]

[Hiding (Blue): You can hide yourself better]

[Note: As a sea snail, learning to hide is the key to longevity!—Coconut Conch]

[Please make a choice within one minute or abandon! Failure to choose will automatically select the first entry!]

The entries for the coconut conch were relatively mundane.

But Pearl Depository caught Chen Wen’s eye for a while.

This entry... might just be kidney stones!

Not daring to choose Pearl Depository, Chen Wen chose the blue [Hiding].

After dining,

Chen Wen returned to the dome house to rest.

For now, the men’s group’s food supply was sufficient.

Chen Wen planned to take a break, resting for a few days.

As for the gathering of food, Zhang Hu was watching over the weir trap, which provided ample seafood daily.

Lv Guocheng’s back was mostly recovered, taking Lu Heng to find food was just right.

Moreover, plenty of food was stored, and they had a sheep, so there was no worry about food scarcity.

In the afternoon,

Chen Wen found Wang Zhi to start experimenting with cassava liquor brewing.

But without yeast, brewing was all down to luck.

And Wang Zhi’s luck was clearly poor.

The second wine brewing attempt also ended in failure.

In the end, Wang Zhi held his head in his hands, sitting despondently in the camp.

Seeing this, Chen Wen sat next to Wang Zhi.

”What’s up, hit a snag?”

Chen Wen asked with a smile.

Wang Zhi shook his head, quite rueful: ”No, not a snag, it’s all snags, everything is hard!”

Upon hearing this, Chen Wen asked, ”I’m not too familiar with brewing, could you explain? Which step is problematic? Let’s think together to see if we can solve this.”

Wang Zhi thought for a moment, then said, ”My approach to using cassava for brewing is similar to regular brewing, first clean and process the cassava, steam and gelatinize it.”

”This step is pretty straightforward, we managed in the first two attempts.”

”But it’s just the first step that’s easy, the rest are failures.”

Wang Zhi was a bit speechless: ”The next two steps are key to brewing - saccharification and fermentation. Saccharification needs amylase, which we don’t have. I tried substituting something, but the effect was clearly insufficient.”

”As for fermentation, we also need brewing yeast. My idea was to find a substitute, but if the previous step fails, experimenting on this one is tough too.”

”Besides these two major hurdles, there’s the distillation step. Ugh, let’s not brew anymore, it wastes resources!”

Wang Zhi said, hanging his head low.