Chapter 1043 - 62: The Squirrel’s Wonder Cabin

Swoosh!

Pfft!

Chen Wen slid down from the tree, made a small jump, and landed steadily.

"How about it? Did you get everything?"

Chen Wen looked at Hua Yun, his eyes showing a look of anticipation.

Hua Yun nodded and smilingly displayed the items in his hand.

A large handful of dried mushrooms!

"Is this close to two hundred grams?"

Chen Wen asked.

Dried mushrooms are extremely light and fluffy, a large handful is roughly two to three hundred grams.

Hua Yun nodded, "Maybe even more, though I saw some other dried mushrooms, why didn’t you take them down?"

Chen Wen chuckled, "Gotta leave some for the red squirrels, right?"

Upon hearing this, Hua Yun chuckled lightly and nodded.

It seems Chen Wen is still the same old Chen Wen!

After packing up these dried mushrooms, Chen Wen wandered around nearby.

However, although there were dried mushrooms on the surrounding trees, the quantity was very little.

Chen Wen didn’t want to climb up and down just for a few dried mushrooms, so in the end, he only took some from another pine tree that had more.

After working for about ten minutes, Chen Wen finally obtained close to 500 grams of dried mushrooms, about a pound.

This harvest can be considered quite abundant!

But it’s not over yet.

Chen Wen asked Hua Yun to pack the dried mushrooms and place them on the sled.

Then he went to a pine tree nearby and gently stroked the tree’s bark.

Soon, the Tree Shepherd ability activated.

The old pine tree before Chen Wen slowly manifested consciousness; its consciousness cautiously touched Chen Wen, and Chen Wen also perceived through the old pine tree’s consciousness what it wanted.

[There are many bugs on my body, help me get rid of them]

Chen Wen looked and indeed saw many beetle larvae holes on the pine tree’s body.

He took out a knife and started his old craft: digging out beetle larvae.

Soon, he captured all the beetle larvae.

These beetles were collected by Chen Wen, as they are precious protein!

After dealing with the beetles, Chen Wen received the old pine tree’s gratitude.

Before obtaining the keywords from the old pine tree, Chen Wen questioned the pine tree through Conscious Communication: where are the squirrel’s food storage holes?

The old pine tree was quite perceptive; it sensed Chen Wen’s needs through his consciousness.

Soon, the needles swayed.

Chen Wen got the answer he wanted.

After walking a few steps, Chen Wen found a squirrel food storage hole on another pine tree.

This should be a storage hole of one of the deceased squirrels.

Chen Wen did not hold back and directly extracted the nuts inside.

Hua Yun stood beside, holding the bag, awaiting.

Upon seeing what Chen Wen took out, Hua Yun couldn’t help but widen his eyes, "Wow! So many nuts? Pine nuts, hazelnuts, is this spruce cones? And! This must be dried cranberries!"

This time Chen Wen managed to extract nearly two pounds of items from this large tree hole!

Quite an abundance indeed.

It’s noteworthy that when squirrels store food, they choose to hide them in multiple places.

On one hand, it’s because their hiding spots are quite hidden and narrow, not capable of storing much; on the other hand, these squirrels are also adept at investing, knowing not to put all eggs in one basket.

Thus, finding so much food in one hiding place is quite rare.

This time Chen Wen was lucky to encounter such a large tree hole.

That’s why he could find so much food inside.

Besides this tree hole, Chen Wen knew of two other places.

One was a crevice, within the gap of a small rock mound no more than two steps from here, a squirrel had stored food.

Not much, less than half a pound, mainly pine nuts.

The other was within another tree’s hole, quite abundant here too, about a pound or so.

"Not bad, not bad, quite a harvest!"

Chen Wen cleared out these three squirrel storages.

This time he didn’t leave anything for the squirrels, but it wasn’t cruelty; the three storages belonged to the two deceased squirrels here.

Especially the first squirrel, it was like the territorial bully among the squirrel group owing to its robust body.

Two of the three squirrel storages were its, the other belonged to one of the other deceased squirrel’s storages.

This old pine tree only told Chen Wen what it knew about the deceased squirrels’ storages.

The relationship between pine trees and squirrels is quite deep too.

But these gains already made Chen Wen quite satisfied.

After collecting these nuts and dried fruits and placing them on the sled, Chen Wen checked the keyword the old pine tree provided.

This tree is a Siberian Fir.

It gave Chen Wen three decent keywords, but Chen Wen finally chose one that might be useful later.

[Dust Resistant (Golden): When your feet are deeply buried in sand, significantly increase your resistance to sandstorms, making it harder for strong winds to move you]

The possibility of using this keyword here is low.

But Chen Wen knows clearly that in the upcoming survival, he faces one challenge that requires him to head to the scorching Sahara Desert.

There this keyword might come in handy.

Of course, choosing this keyword was also due to the repetition with previously obtained ones from the other two options.

The results of this hunt kept Chen Wen and Hua Yun rather satisfied.

Two squirrels, some nuts, some dried mushrooms, some dried berries, and one keyword.

A full harvest indeed!

Chen Wen thought and couldn’t help but reveal aloud, "Opportunities are greater outside! The squirrels around our camp, guessing when we were chopping trees, all fled."

Hua Yun agreed and nodded, "But maybe there weren’t many squirrels there to begin with, as it used to be a logging workers’ place."

Arseny’s brother used to work there.

But later due to the nearby brown bear, he relocated further north to work.

The two casually chatted a bit, then put all the collected items on the sled, intending to move on.

But just as Chen Wen was wondering where the Golden Eagle went.

In the sky, the Golden Eagle emitted a sharp cry, catching Chen Wen and Hua Yun’s attention.

It swiftly swooped down, landing near Chen Wen.

Then, the Golden Eagle emitted short cries.

As Chen Wen listened, a joyful expression flashed across his face.

"What’s going on? What’s it saying?"

Hua Yun urged, "Spill it, did it find new prey?"

Chen Wen nodded, couldn’t help but tap the Golden Eagle’s body as encouragement.

He spoke excitedly, "The Golden Eagle has found prey! And it’s quite a prey! They are in packs, and quite sizable!"

Actually, he already knew what the Golden Eagle discovered; it was a group of wild boars active ahead.

But to avoid revealing too much, Chen Wen only gave a rough description.

But that was enough to thrill Hua Yun.