Wilderness Survival with Druid System

Chapter 590: Chapter 89: Closing the Net

The wolverines brought back a snow rabbit.

Chen Wen hadn’t finished eating the last snow rabbit, and now there’s another one.

After praising the three animals, Chen Wen spoke about the attack on the shelter.

Upon hearing about the grizzly bear’s attack on the shelter.

The wolverine immediately got furious: ”That damned grizzly bear! If you hadn’t stopped me last time, I would have torn it apart!”

Hearing the wolverine boasting, the red fox said faintly from the side, ”Don’t mention it. If it weren’t for Chen Wen’s intervention, it would have been the two of us getting torn apart last time!”

Upon hearing this, the wolverine felt abashed.

It had forgotten the red fox was also there.

The old wolf, upon hearing this, curiously asked about what a grizzly bear was.

After listening to the wolverine’s description, the old wolf’s eyes flashed a hint of seriousness.

It looked at Chen Wen: ”The grizzly bear, it’s very formidable! My pack and I once encountered a grizzly bear! It was spring, and the grizzly bear attacked us at night, leading to the loss of one member!”

Spring, indeed.

Chen Wen nodded thoughtfully.

The aggressiveness of grizzly bears in spring is not weaker than in autumn, as they just finished hibernating with extremely empty stomachs.

They desperately need to replenish nutrition and energy.

Once they encounter food, they certainly won’t let it go.

Not even a pack of North American gray wolves!

That experience probably left the old wolf with a psychological shadow.

When talking about confronting the grizzly bear, the old wolf was still very hesitant and nervous.

The red fox felt the same.

It could clearly recognize the huge gap between itself and the grizzly bear.

The wolverine, on the other hand, felt indignant, probably still upset about being chased by the grizzly bear last time, wanting to turn the tables.

However, Chen Wen felt more likely that the creature was anxious about the grizzly bear eyeing its food.

”Formidable as it may be, we can’t just sit by and let this grizzly bear threaten us from the sidelines.”

Chen Wen made a decision regarding this matter: ”I’ve decided not to speak of it today, but starting tomorrow, you three will take turns staying near the shelter on guard. It would be best to go near the grizzly bear’s lair and observe its movements. The moment it shows any intention of coming to the camp, notify me at once!”

Having the animals monitor the grizzly bear’s movements is meant to prevent the bear from launching a surprise attack near the camp again.

Causing damage to the camp.

Moreover, Chen Wen planned to deal with this grizzly bear once and for all; otherwise, he couldn’t swallow this anger.

He was lucky that the grizzly bear destroyed the fireplace and extinguished the bonfire.

If that bear had broken through the walls and let the fire ignite the shelter, burning it down.

He would find it difficult to continue surviving this time.

Furthermore, the grizzly bear was too close to his shelter; the scent in this area could easily be detected by the bear.

Should he obtain more food or smoked meat, the scent of meat wafting over.

The probability of this grizzly bear returning is not low.

In any case, this grizzly bear must die!

Chen Wen had already made up his mind.

As for the grizzly bear meat and entries, they weren’t very important to him now.

The next day.

As instructed by Chen Wen, the animals started taking turns monitoring the grizzly bear’s movements.

Chen Wen wasn’t in a hurry to hunt this creature down yet.

According to the animals, the grizzly bear was currently planning to hibernate and wasn’t leaving its shelter much.

This was great news for Chen Wen.

He planned to make his move once the bear hibernated.

Hence, during these two days, Chen Wen was busy working on the muskox.

...

Time flew by, and it was now five days later.

During these five days, Chen Wen had further butchered the muskox into parts, freezing a large portion in the storage room as fresh meat reserves.

A smaller portion was made into smoked meat.

As for the previous snow rabbits, Chen Wen also made them into smoked rabbits.

Hanging them in the storage room.

Notably, during these five days, Chen Wen also had good luck with his fishing; the seine net yielded results frequently.

Additionally, this time he caught a fish he had never seen before.

After cutting open the fish’s body, from the distinctive fish meat, Chen Wen identified it as a rainbow trout.

This made Chen Wen quite happy.

This rainbow trout was also processed by Chen Wen into smoked fish.

Currently, Chen Wen’s food reserves topped the chart.

Moreover, he meticulously allocated the food, planning the following consumption.

Most of the raw meat was reserved for the animals by Chen Wen.

When it was time to eat, he would simply boil the meat to thaw it.

While he himself mainly consumed smoked meat and boiled meat.

These meats were stored away by Chen Wen and strictly monitored.

Additionally, the previously collected berry dried fruits and fireweed roots were also properly stored by Chen Wen.

Thanks to the presence of the short-tailed weasel, the mice in this area had been mostly dealt with.

The few remaining were scared away by the short-tailed weasel’s ferocity and dared not linger around Chen Wen’s shelter.

Nonetheless, from the looks of it at present, Chen Wen’s survival was improving steadily.

However, Chen Wen still couldn’t let go of the grizzly bear incident.

Over the past five days, with Chen Wen finishing processing his food and tanning the muskox hide.

He finally had the time to deal with the grizzly bear!

...

On the twenty-fifth day of survival.

Chen Wen picked up his wild trio - the long spear, axe, and hunting knife, and headed to the lakeside.

”It’s frozen; it seems the fishing nets are now pointless.”

Chen Wen put away the fishing nets, a gleam of regret in his eyes.

Although this time the fishing nets yielded some results, they far from met his expectations.

”I’ll have to see if I can catch some fish through ice fishing later then.”

Chen Wen hauled the seine net onto the shore, shaking off the ice scraps on it.

Great Slave Lake had mostly frozen over, only a few areas near the shore had some gaps left.

The seine net was now unusable.

Putting away the seine net, Chen Wen returned to the shelter with it.

...

Meanwhile, at Gaston’s side.

He also retrieved the seine net at the same time.

However, compared to Chen Wen’s regret, Gaston felt a bit desperate at that moment.

”My seine net can no longer catch fish for me! Ah! Why must it be this way!”

Gaston couldn’t help but wail.

This time his seine net had brought him a large amount of fish, giving him a substantial food haul early on.

Recently, he even had some bouts of diarrhea from eating too much fish.

Fortunately, he found some caribou moss in the forest, grinding it into powder and mixing it with minced fish to ease the diarrhea situation.

But now the seine net was unusable, and his food reserves hadn’t reached the luxurious level of Chen Wen’s at all.

It was challenging even to sustain survival to fifty days.

While Chen Wen’s luck was concentrated in the forest, his luck was all in the lake.

Gaston’s traps and hunting performance were rather poor!

Uncertain of what to do next, Gaston felt a bit lost.

After recovering the seine net, he contemplated by the lakeside for a long while.

Ultimately, Gaston chose to trust his luck!

He planned to dismantle the seine net to make fishing lines.

He would then grind the previously obtained rabbit bones into fish hooks and start ice fishing during this period.

But luck isn’t limitless, and this thing has its end.

Gaston did not know that his current decision sowed the seeds of his demise.

...

Compared to Chen Wen and Gaston, other people reacted much more calmly to retrieving the fishing nets.

After all, most participants this time were more skilled in hunting.

They didn’t invest much effort in fishing and had more of a mindset of having it as a bonus, not bothering if they didn’t.

Therefore, after retrieving all the fishing nets.

Some began dismantling the fishing nets, making them into fishing lines, intending to start ice fishing.

Ice fishing is one of the simpler hunting methods in the later stages of survival.

While some didn’t dismantle the fishing nets for now, planning to use them elsewhere, like Chen Wen.