Wilderness Survival with Druid System

Chapter 346: Chapter 17: Spearfishing!

For the strategy to succeed in trapping the animals, Chen Wen needed to exert precise control.

He first went ashore, piling up mud around the channel, to facilitate immediate blockage.

Once prepared, Chen Wen again observed the distant crocodile and used a drone for a careful survey of the surrounding waters.

After confirming no Nile crocodiles were in the water, Chen Wen slowly entered the water, moving to the rear of the group of Egyptian Catfish.

The catfish were unaware they had been targeted by Chen Wen and continued searching for food in the water.

But just as they were happily enjoying their meal, Chen Wen sprang into action.

He swung his spear, stirring the water, causing the catfish to become suddenly alert.

Because Chen Wen was in the direction of the catfish’s deep water escape route, most of them chose to flee in the opposite direction, into the channel.

Only a few catfish dared to escape past Chen Wen or to the sides.

This surprised Chen Wen pleasantly.

He ignored the few catfish, quickly swimming to the channel’s mouth to begin mud-blocking the waterway.

The over-a-meter-wide channel was somewhat difficult to block.

But Chen Wen didn’t intend to completely block it, just to make it harder for the Egyptian Catfish to escape.

After the channel was almost blocked off,

Chen Wen grabbed his spear and began advancing into the channel.

Holding the spear, he carefully searched for the silhouette of a catfish.

A moment later, an Egyptian Catfish lying at the channel’s edge feigning death caught Chen Wen’s eye.

”Playing dead, huh? I’ll make you truly dead!”

Chen Wen roughly estimated the position with his spear.

Took a deep breath and hurled it forcefully!

Whiz!

Under great force, the spear made a brief whoosh as it pierced the water’s surface.

But to Chen Wen’s surprise, it didn’t hit.

”Missed?”

Chen Wen was momentarily stunned but soon realized the mistake.

He couldn’t help but chuckle and said, ”I’ve been absent-minded, haven’t been surviving by the water’s edge recently and forgot about light refraction, truly...”

Sighing, Chen Wen conversed with netizens about the relationship between light refraction and spearfishing.

While searching for the next target, he explained, ”As is well-known, when light shoots obliquely from water into the air, refraction occurs, and the angle of refraction is greater than the angle of incidence. This means that the light reflecting off the fish’s body bends upwards when it enters the air.”

”Therefore, the position of the fish seen by the human eye is a virtual image formed by the extension of the light into the eye, higher than the fish’s actual position.”

”So, when spearing a fish, if you aim at the fish’s visible position, it’s offset above and often makes you miss.”

”By simply aiming lower, the distance is hard to specify and depends on different circumstances; experienced folks know, while inexperienced ones should try several times to determine the distance, just like now.”

With a new target spotted, Chen Wen slightly adjusted the aim downwards.

Then, gathering all his strength, he fiercely threw the spear.

Whoosh.

The spear moved like water, and with the violent struggle of the Egyptian Catfish, the water instantly became murky.

Chen Wen quickly took a few steps forward, lifting the spear.

At the spear’s tip, an Egyptian Catfish about twenty centimeters long appeared before the camera.

”Whoa! That’s quite lively!”

Chen Wen grinned, ”Although this thing doesn’t leave a nice impression, once roasted and popped in your mouth, it’s still meat! When starving, it can be life-saving!”

Chen Wen removed the Egyptian Catfish from the spear, pierced its head with the spear tip, and gently stirred.

The Egyptian Catfish passed away on the spot.

Tossing the first catch onto the shore, Chen Wen glanced back at the Kuanduo River.

As darkness fell, people generally saw only a blur at a distance.

But with his enhanced vision, Chen Wen retained night vision capabilities.

The Nile crocodiles remained motionless on the shore, as though dead.

No disturbances in the river, either.

Safe!

Chen Wen focused back, continuing with spearfishing.

The Egyptian Catfish, much like a scavenger, possesses great survival skills.

They have a unique ability—migration!

Yes, you heard correctly, migration!

The Egyptian Catfish’s migratory ability is strong.

They have tough spines and can push their bodies on land using these spines to crawl.

Sounds unbelievable, right?

But more astonishingly, they can even cross many obstacles, migrating from one body of water to another to find a new living environment.

This ability allows them to continuously seek new, suitable waters to live in.

Therefore, Chen Wen knew his blockade could only hold temporarily.

He explained this characteristic of the Egyptian Catfish and added his evaluation: ”There’s a type of catfish that can never be confined; each spine gleams with the light of freedom.”

This made Jiang Chang, just coming on duty, laugh till she bent over.

What Shawshank’s Redemption!

Andy Catfish, huh?

...

Joking aside, Chen Wen earnestly sent the remaining catfish to see the prison warden.

To make them understand that the path to redemption might lie in the Bible, but more likely in the stomach.

Abundant harvest!

Looking at the evening’s catch, Chen Wen cleaned his spear in the water.

He snagged nine Egyptian Catfish in total, the smallest about seven centimeters and the largest nearly thirty centimeters long!

These are mature specimens.

Egyptian Catfish can grow very large—even approaching a meter in length.

But in the predator-rich Kuanduo River, reaching such sizes is tough.

Stringing the nine Egyptian Catfish on the spear, Chen Wen carried them toward the camp.

...

The first night.

Few participants managed to acquire food.

Among them, Chen Wen, with nine Egyptian Catfish, was indisputably the top—number one.

Second was Ivan, who was hunting.

However, much of his food was taken by the hyenas.

To call it theft isn’t entirely accurate.

The hyenas merely caught a whiff and instinctively came over for a glance.

Ivan panicked and left most of the food, quickly departing from the hyenas.

Honestly, those hyenas were quite puzzled too.

Hyenas, contrary to many beliefs, aren’t just scavengers eating carrion; they prefer hunting.

Seventy percent of their diet comes from active hunting.

With large size, teamwork prowess, and communication signals, hyenas boast a high hunting success rate.

Twice that of lions, reaching a terrifying seventy-four percent.

Thus, seeing Ivan leave the food, the hyenas’ interest in him was far greater than in the food.

Nonetheless, Ivan left quickly, and with heavily scented arrows in hand, the hyenas deemed him difficult to provoke, and thus settled for taking away Ivan’s catch.