Chapter 1005 - 24: The Wound on the Brown Bear’s Back

"Hiss! Chen Wen, you’d better come and take a look!"

Fred shouted loudly, "There’s something wrong with this brown bear!"

Something wrong?

Hearing this, Chen Wen frowned, "Is it a sick bear?"

As he spoke, Chen Wen quickened his pace and moved towards Fred.

Fred, looking at the brown bear’s back, had a sharp gaze: "It’s not a sick bear, but an injured bear! This bear... it has two very obvious scars on its back!"

Chen Wen was taken aback at these words.

Scars?

He quickly walked over, frowning as he looked at the brown bear’s back.

At this moment, a lot of the brown bear’s skin had already been peeled off, and its back was exposed to the air.

On the upper left part of the brown bear’s back, parting the fur, Chen Wen saw two very deep wounds!

"Is this... a spear? Or something else?"

Looking at the wounds on the brown bear’s back, Chen Wen felt that the wound was quite familiar.

Although it had healed somewhat, he could roughly judge from the shape of the wound that it was caused by a spear.

A spear!

And the time wasn’t very long, possibly just within the last week.

Chen Wen glanced around, could it be the Hunting Owl?

However, according to Vikram’s intelligence, Russia is one of the few countries where there are indeed no Hunting Owl activities because the poaching organizations here are mostly composed of locals, and outsiders like the Hunting Owl find it tough to snatch food from local organizations.

"Could it be poachers?"

Hua Yun asked with some concern.

Fred grinned at these words: "Poachers here don’t use spears, they all carry guns."

Hearing this, Chen Wen asked Fred, "Then who do you think would usually go after a brown bear? Your local people."

Fred thought for a moment and, according to his living habits, voiced his guess, "Several types of people, the first kind, loggers, some loggers would drive away or kill nearby dangerous animals to ensure their safety."

"Secondly, some legal hunters, these people, upon acquiring hunting permits, would enter the forest with weapons for hunting, and they might use cold weapons."

"Lastly, some nearby residents, possibly for revenge or money, sometimes gather together to poach, and some professional hunters without hunting permits might also moonlight as poachers."

Chen Wen thought for a moment and said, "So, that means the person who killed this bear doesn’t pose much of a threat to us. If we encounter them, we can explain a bit, right?"

Fred nodded, "That’s right. These people usually don’t trouble other humans in the forest, and once familiar, they might even leave things behind for us. When I was younger, my father often helped those hunters, both legal and illegal, but overall, they were very Friendly."

No threat, that’s good.

Chen Wen thought and said, "You guys continue. I’ll go check the surroundings."

After reassuring everyone, Chen Wen found the Golden Eagle.

He let the Golden Eagle fly up and used its Shared Vision to conduct a comprehensive surveillance of the surroundings.

But after looking around, Chen Wen found no traces of other humans.

He ended the Shared Vision, thinking: maybe the person who wounded this brown bear has already left this area.

Moreover, Chen Wen now also realized why the bear dodged the spear.

Possibly not long ago, it was attacked by humans with a spear, leading it to recognize the danger of the spear, so when facing Chen Wen’s spear, it chose to dodge.

...

It didn’t take long.

Fred and Gaston together dismembered the brown bear.

Everyone took a share of the bear’s limbs and slowly began to transport them back to the camp.

Although it wasn’t very useful and required hard labor,

everyone’s face was very happy.

After all, what they were carrying was real meat!

Hua Yun estimated conservatively that this brown bear could provide them with over 450 pounds of meat!

So much meat, if stored properly, could feed them for a long time, at least pushing the construction of the shelter forward significantly.

Moreover, the bear skin could be tanned, and the bear bones could be processed into corresponding tools.

Chen Wen was quite happy at this moment, but his reasons for happiness slightly differed from Hua Yun’s.

Chen Wen’s joy lay in the brown bear being able to provide them with nearly 200 pounds of fat!

Fat!

In the icy world, fat is considered more critical than meat and can even be deemed a strategic resource!

In the later stages of the Forest Extreme Challenge, one might lack meat, but lacking fat can’t happen.

Additionally, hunting aside, how to preserve this creature is also a problem.

If preserved well, the bear’s utilization rate could rise to as high as dozens of percent, even approaching 100 percent.

But if not preserved well, or if it gets stolen or spoiled, then it’s a huge loss!

Carrying a bear leg, Chen Wen said while walking, "After we return, I’ll handle dividing the bear meat into fat and lean parts. Let’s find a way to store the fat properly, and as for the lean meat, I plan to dry it for storage. Of course, I’ll keep a portion of fresh meat for us to consume over the next few days. What do you think?"

Adam nodded at these words, "You handle it, I feel your ability to process and preserve food is quite strong."

Hua Yun agreed with a nod.

Chen Wen always managed to make food last quite well, during the Australian Desert Extreme Challenge, the camel meat they initially got lasted until the Kimberley Plateau, and it hadn’t gone bad either.

Just that it wasn’t that fresh, so Chen Wen ended up letting the animals eat it.

Fred had no objections, and he had returned to his usual quiet self.

Roland thought for a moment; his own skills in this area weren’t great, he even let his stored berries go moldy when living in the wild, so he kept silent.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Gaston certainly had none either.

Thus, with everyone’s tacit agreement, it was settled that Chen Wen would be responsible for handling the food.

Chen Wen said, "Of course, while I’m handling the food, you don’t have time for rest either. Hua Yun, you go tan the leather, Fred and Roland chop down trees, Gaston, find a way to prepare the fishing gear, and go fishing whenever you can. We don’t need your effort in building the shelter; whether we have you or not, it’s the same."

Hearing this, everyone couldn’t help but laugh.

Gaston grinned, "What do you mean by whether we have me or not, it’s the same? I’m a crucial character, okay?"

Chen Wen nodded, "Okay, let me rephrase that. Having you do shelter construction tasks would indeed be a waste of your talents, so I decided to send you fishing, working for everyone’s food! How do you feel about that?"

Gaston snorted, "Now that’s more like it!"

Adam beside them said, "What about me? Should I go chop trees too? Or organize the camp?"

Glancing at Adam, Chen Wen said, "Your task is also quite demanding. So, take the spear, along with the Wolf Mink and Golden Eagle, go around and scout for stones. You don’t have to bring them back, just locate where they are, and we will move them to the camp as materials for the stone shelter later."

Adam nodded at these words.

This task is indeed quite demanding.

And exploring the surroundings without knowing the environment carries inherent risks.

The fact that Chen Wen is letting both the Golden Eagle and the Wolf Mink accompany him shows it.