Chapter 309 - 204: A Special Blade Technique

Chapter 309: Chapter 204: A Special Blade Technique

Though a lot of earth had fallen from the cave ceiling, the layers of moss and banana leaves provided enough cover. The food hidden underground was still completely intact and dry.

Inside the hole, originally only the size of a basketball, all the spices were wrapped in banana leaves, along with a few sea cucumbers that Lin Chen had previously collected, processed, and air-dried.

The larger items, like potatoes, coconuts, and bananas, were stacked in a corner. Over there, Erica had dug a shallow groove along the base of the wall, just big enough to store them.

"After a huge storm like that, it probably won’t rain again for the next few days."

Lin Chen carried some branches and firewood out from the cave. He tried to start a fire with a hand drill, but had no success after ten-odd minutes.

"Could it be that there was too much moisture in the cave during the collapse? Maybe it made the firewood damp?"

Erica squatted beside him, resting her chin in her right hand. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help. With her hands so injured, she probably couldn’t do any manual labor for a while.

Even if she wanted to, Lin Chen definitely wouldn’t let her.

’As a good fan, it’s perfectly reasonable to listen to my idol, right?’

"Very likely."

Lin Chen drilled for several more minutes, but the wood dust accumulating underneath showed no sign of igniting.

He immediately gave up on the hand drill method and ducked back into the cave, emerging with a dry section of bamboo.

The originally green skin on the bamboo’s surface had dried to a pale yellow, which was the simplest way to judge how dry the bamboo was.

With a bamboo knife, he lightly cut a groove, then angled the blade to pry up the edge. Pressing his thumb down on the bamboo skin, he pulled, easily tearing off the surface layer.

Although this outer layer was yellow, given that even the branches and firewood were damp, there was probably moisture invisible to the naked eye hidden within the skin’s fibers.

After peeling off the surface layer, the bamboo fibers underneath were the part untouched by moisture.

He used his combat knife to score two lines on the surface of the bamboo fibers and carved out the section between them, creating a groove the shape of a French fry. At the top end of the groove, he drilled a small hole.

He split the bamboo in half and laid the grooved piece on the ground, face-up. From the other half, he scraped off some bamboo shavings and stuffed them under the groove to serve as tinder. Finally, he split off another finger-thick strip of bamboo and took it in his hands.

This was another friction fire method, but it required significant speed, strength, and endurance.

Given his current physical condition, he honestly wasn’t sure if he could succeed.

As if sensing his nervousness, Erica raised a small fist.

"Come on! Believe in yourself! I know you can do it!"

"Think I need you to tell me that?"

Lin Chen scoffed, took a deep breath, and gripped the bamboo strip. He overlapped his hands, resting his index and middle fingers lightly on the middle of the strip to hold it steady, and squeezed hard with both thumbs.

He set the tip of the strip in the bamboo’s groove and began to slowly slide it back and forth.

"I’ll hold it steady for you!"

Erica stretched out her foot and held down the front end of the bamboo piece with her toes, preventing it from shifting from the rapid friction to come.

As a forest guide, she was of course familiar with this fire-starting method. But bamboo generally grew in warm climates; while some grew in subtropical regions, it definitely wasn’t found in the forests of North America.

She had only ever seen videos of it online and had never actually tried it herself.

Without a bow drill, this was one of the fastest and most effective ways to make fire.

The drawback was that it was incredibly tough on the hands.

At first, he rubbed slowly as he adjusted to the rhythm and the amount of force required.

In addition, since neither the strip nor the groove had been sanded down, their surfaces were rough and angular. The initial friction would help smooth them out.

Gradually, he grew accustomed to the rhythm, and the motion of the strip sliding back and forth in the groove became much smoother.

He began putting power into his forearms, and his back-and-forth strokes started to accelerate.

He picked up speed much faster than Erica had imagined. In just over ten seconds, veins were already bulging on his forearms from the strain.

At some point, he had clenched his jaw, and beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

His hands, gripping the bamboo strip, moved in a blur of afterimages. They were so fast it was almost impossible for the naked eye to track their path.

At such high speeds, the part of the strip pressing into the groove was quickly worn into an arc, and the groove itself became much smoother.

More and more bamboo dust was generated by the friction, piling up in the groove. Some of it trickled through the hole and onto the shavings below.

HUFF... HUFF...

After only twenty-some seconds of friction, Lin Chen was already drenched in sweat. His forearms felt on the verge of cramping, and his strength was nearing its limit.

But the bamboo dust in the groove was still wood-colored, showing no signs of blackening. This meant the temperature hadn’t reached its ignition point.

If he stopped now, the heat built up in the groove would dissipate instantly, and all his effort would be for nothing.

This method was a battle of endurance. The vast majority of the effort was just to accumulate heat. The temperature would only rise if the friction got faster and faster.

The moment the temperature hit its critical point, the wood dust would ignite, turn black, and produce an ember.

Seeing his contorted expression, Erica was about to tease him, hoping it might spur him on.

But for some reason, the words died on her lips. She was afraid that distracting him would cause all his hard work to be for nothing.

"GRRAH!"

A low growl escaped Lin Chen’s throat. His face contorted as he used every last ounce of his strength to keep the friction from slowing.