Wilderness Survival with Druid System-Chapter 543 - 42: The Fireplace Completed

The Wolverine and the Red Fox ventured into the forest together.

This was a combination never seen before in the jungle.

The Wolverine swaggered along, still resembling a little hooligan. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

On the other hand, the Red Fox moved with much more grace, and walked rather cautiously.

The Red Fox found this situation somewhat unreal.

After all, just yesterday, it had been fighting to the death with the Wolverine.

But today, they had become comrades about to hunt together.

This role reversal was rather extreme.

However, after gaining wisdom, the Red Fox naturally felt a fondness for animals it could communicate with.

Besides, the Wolverine wasn’t treating it too badly.

It even shared a piece of bear rib with the Red Fox, prompted by hints from Chen Wen.

This increased the Red Fox’s goodwill towards the Wolverine.

"Why do you walk so timidly?"

The Wolverine suddenly looked at the Red Fox and said, "Can’t you walk openly like me?"

We’re going hunting, if you move so loudly, won’t the other animals notice us?

The Red Fox held back its urge to retort, then said, "We need to move lightly, or we’ll scare off the prey."

The Wolverine then realized, "That makes sense."

Scratching its head, the Wolverine started to ponder the next steps for hunting.

But its still quite new brain, even with the wisdom from Chen Wen, was reluctant to exert itself too much.

In the end, the Wolverine looked at the Red Fox, "I’ll listen to you; you seem to have as many strange ideas as humans."

Upon hearing this, the Red Fox nodded proudly.

In terms of thinking, it felt it was only slightly inferior to Chen Wen.

"Okay, your nose is sharp, let’s use scent to find the prey."

The Red Fox recalled its previous hunting methods and said, "By smell, let’s find the prey first."

Hearing this, the Wolverine asked, "Speaking of smell, can you detect the scent of meat?"

The Red Fox nodded.

Looking around its surroundings, it said, "There’s a carcass of a big creature here. The bone you took from me last time came from it."

The Wolverine tilted its head for a long time before recalling the incident.

It said, "Let’s go, check it out. I remember humans call that creature a deer, maybe we can find more deer and take one down!"

Come on, with your small stature.

The Red Fox nodded, "Let’s go then, I’ll take you there, but be careful. Dangerous animals usually lurk around dead bodies, but this one has been dead for a long time, so it should be safer."

The Wolverine nonchalantly nodded and followed the Red Fox deeper into the forest.

...

Meanwhile, on Chen Wen’s side.

After the two animals left, he also began to focus on his work.

First, the fireplace.

Chen Wen had enough materials to build the fireplace.

Clay, stone, and wood were the primary materials.

Moreover, building a fireplace wasn’t difficult; anyone with some crafting skills could easily make one.

In Chen Wen’s view, the only challenging aspects of building a fireplace were choosing the location and the chimney.

If the location was wrong, the fireplace could become an obstacle.

If the chimney wasn’t effective, lighting a fire would result in a smoke-filled shelter.

However, Chen Wen had addressed the location and chimney aspects while constructing the shelter.

He had oriented the shelter’s door to the side opposite the slope.

The corresponding side was left for the fireplace.

This was designed to better preserve heat and to set up the chimney.

For the fireplace foundation, Chen Wen chose relatively flat stones to support it.

He constructed an outline for the fireplace using stones.

Then, Chen Wen began constructing the fireplace using stones and clay, following the steps for building a wall.

During the construction of the fireplace,

Chen Wen also set a small stove for himself using stones.

This would be convenient for cooking when the weather turned cold and one needed to huddle in the shelter.

As time passed, the shape of Chen Wen’s fireplace gradually took form.

...

Weather changes affected the participants’ actions.

Chen Wen hurried to build the fireplace to move the fire safely and stably into the shelter.

Adam, Phil, Vic, Roland, Vini, and Fred were also preparing to relocate their fires.

Each person had their own methods.

Some utilized already built shelters and, like Chen Wen, set up a fire area inside the shelter.

Others pulled apart waterproof sheets to specifically create a rain shelter for the fire.

However, Gaston and Shijing Heren didn’t promptly adjust their actions according to weather changes.

Both were busy checking fishing nets and attempting to catch fish.

Hua Yun had already acquired a bounty of game from hunting.

With the weather changing, she decided to start looking for a campsite.

Using the game from earlier hunting and this last period to set up a shelter.

For Great Slave Lake, rain signified the coming of winter.

An autumn rain heralds a chill, no doubt about it.

...

Back to Chen Wen.

Just as the fireplace was nearing completion, it started to drizzle.

Chen Wen immediately transferred the fire into the nearly finished fireplace, and during this time, gathered the drying bear skin, blueberries, and boletus, and put them inside the shelter.

With this, the previously spacious shelter instantly became packed, almost crowded.

Then, Chen Wen braved the cold drizzle to finish constructing the chimney outside.

Once done, he crawled inside the shelter.

"Let’s see how the fireplace is doing."

Chen Wen said, adding twigs from small to large to the fire that seemed about to go out.

As the flames roared, the smell of burning spread through the shelter.

Because Chen Wen intentionally added some wet twigs, the fire’s burning generated quite a bit of smoke.

As the smoke rose, it seemed as if an invisible giant mouth was drawing the smoke out.

This was the chimney at work.

"Not bad, looks like the fireplace is completely ready!"

Chen Wen said with a happy smile, "Now I can rest well, the fireplace’s clay gets firmer as it burns, fire away!"

"Hmm~ while the two animals haven’t returned, I can take a good rest."

Lying on the ground, Chen Wen looked completely at ease.

But suddenly, Chen Wen furrowed his brows, "Why does it feel like I forgot something..."

After a long thought, Chen Wen slapped his thigh, "Crap! Almost forgot, my fishing net is still in the water!"

"With this heavy rain and wind, dammit! If the fixed stone fails, my fishing net could be swept into Great Slave Lake and that’d be it!"

Chen Wen hurried out of the shelter.

Ignoring the growing rain, he switched to [Temperature Control] to maintain high body temperature.

Under the heavy rain, he sprinted towards the place where the net was cast.

Along the way, he continuously accelerated using [Swift] and [Forest Concealment Step].

In just ten minutes, Chen Wen reached the netted area, panting heavily.

Sliding to the base of a cliff, Chen Wen breathed a sigh of relief.

The fishing net is still there!