Wilderness Survival with Druid System

While Hua Yun and Golden Eagle were hunting, Chen Wen’s discoveries were becoming more frequent.

After finding the canned bottles, Chen Wen found something from the bottom of a broken cabinet.

The thing was covered in a heap of plastic bags and looked pitch-black.

Initially, Chen Wen thought it might be useless, but when he opened it, his eyes lit up: "Is this... similar to mushroom fungi?"

Upon hearing Chen Wen’s question, Roland, who was contemplating how to build a shelter, looked up and glanced over: "It’s mushrooms, dried ones. Where did you find them?"

Chen Wen pointed to beneath the cabinet.

He took out the mushrooms and examined them carefully.

Soon, Chen Wen realized what they were: "Some mushrooms are like shiitake mushrooms. They don’t seem to be picked but bought from outside as they’re in vacuum-sealed bags. These are definitely edible!"

Confidently, Chen Wen took out the bag of vacuum-sealed shiitake mushrooms.

Upon hearing this, Roland scrutinized them and then nodded: "You’re right. It does look like something good to eat!"

Hearing these words, Chen Wen licked his lips: "If Hua Yun can hunt some food today, come evening, we can make a stew with BBQ spices, without adding salt. Just stew the mushrooms and meat together, and it’ll replenish all the energy we’ve lost today!"

Listening to Chen Wen’s description, Roland also swallowed a bit.

Roland’s hunger tolerance wasn’t on the same level as Chen Wen’s. After being active all day without eating, only drinking some water from his canteen, he was already quite hungry.

Chen Wen packed up the mushrooms.

Additionally, there were some more mushrooms in the bag, but they didn’t look very fresh.

Chen Wen briefly examined them, shook his head, and disposed of them.

He couldn’t help but say: "These are not edible; they’re all rotten inside."

"But just now, I saw some of them might have been porcini and matsutake. This season is the last chance to gather mushrooms. We could try looking around. I believe we can find traces of mushrooms under those trees."

Upon hearing this, Roland nodded: "True, maybe I should go and take a look now?"

Chen Wen looked at Roland and couldn’t help but say: "No, it’s not important to look for mushrooms right now. On the other hand, have you come up with any ideas for the shelter I asked you to look into earlier? Building the shelter is your primary task from now on."

Hearing this, Roland replied helplessly: "Ideas, of course, I have some. But given our situation, you should see we have no foundation for building stone shelters. When I built a stone shelter before, I relied on an abandoned pit, and you also used a depression. Building a stone shelter on flat ground is quite challenging."

Chen Wen nodded slightly.

He had also anticipated the difficulties of constructing a stone shelter earlier.

However, a stone shelter is essential for their construction this time because the temperature by Lake Baikal in winter is extremely low, and blizzards are not uncommon.

Having a stone shelter would greatly enhance their survival confidence.

That’s why Chen Wen insisted on building a stone shelter.

Roland proposed: "I originally thought about trying to dig out a subterranean shelter, like you did before, constructing part of the shelter underground to reduce the amount of work above ground."

Saying that, Roland took a shovel and forcefully dug into the ground.

Chen Wen noticed that the topsoil was manageable, but once they started digging downward, it quickly became difficult.

With a furrowed brow, he recognized the issue: "Permafrost layer?"

"Yes!"

Roland said helplessly: "We’re unlucky in this place. It seems to be right on the permafrost, and it’s deep. So, I feel there’s no other way; we can only use the usual method to build a stone shelter."

Chen Wen sighed, saying: "But using the usual construction method faces another problem, which is the workload."

Roland nodded.

A shelter for six people, even if they try some convenient options, won’t save much effort.

However, he added: "But maybe we can try connecting two shelters to share a wall, which will save labor considerably."

Chen Wen shook his head: "No, it saves labor, but it compromises safety. If one shelter is affected by external forces, the rest will be impacted too. The margin for error is too low."

Roland nodded again.

Chen Wen was right; such a plan indeed had an excessively low margin for error.

Wilderness survival ultimately boils down to a contest of error margins; the higher it is, the easier it is for a group to survive to the end.

After discussing for several minutes, Chen Wen and Roland concluded: There was no shortcut for the shelter construction this time! They could only put in the hard work.

After reaching this conclusion, they called the others who were around the camp and issued their orders: "Find a way to collect more rocks, and we also need to chop down a lot of wood. The workload this time really is quite large!"

Upon hearing the news, the others became somewhat anxious.

They worried about not getting the shelter built before the snow came, which would put them in danger.

Chen Wen could sense the direction of everyone’s concern, and with a carefree wave of his hand, he said: "Don’t look so gloomy. There’s really no need to worry. The overall workload is still within the plan; just focus on your own work. Also, we need to concentrate our efforts. While gathering resources, let’s first construct two or three shelters, and build the rest gradually."

Considering the significant calorie expenditure required for shelter construction,

Chen Wen thought about their current situation and said: "Not today... but by tomorrow, we should look for that brown bear!"

Upon hearing this, everyone became visibly attentive.

That brown bear lingered as a dark shadow over everyone’s minds. As long as it wasn’t dead or hibernating, none of them dared to move around boldly.

"That bear is readily available meat; if we can kill it, we won’t lack meat and fat for a short time!"

A hint of ferocity flashed across Chen Wen’s face: "So for the sake of getting our shelters built promptly, this bear must die!"

Upon hearing this, everyone’s nerves tightened.

Killing a brown bear sounded simple but doing it... was exceedingly difficult!

Even with everyone surviving and hunting together, they couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.

But at that moment, along with the cry of the Golden Eagle,

Hua Yun returned!

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