Chapter 140: Chapter 139: Bark Rope, Bow Drill Fire

Andre, who had been tailing Lin Chen from a distance, hadn’t expected to find a small town nearby. It didn’t seem very large, with only a few relatively conspicuous buildings.

As someone from the United States who grew up in the wilderness, he knew exactly what these kinds of settlements out in the wild meant.

To put it bluntly, it was a marketplace for the local residents. The town would most likely have a school and a post office.

They only provided basic education and a social network. The government didn’t bother with anything else.

The food in town mostly came from the surrounding forests and rivers. There were no convenience stores, no malls, and no restaurants.

He had no interest in places like this. Most of the time, there were hardly any people in town, just a skeleton crew of caretakers.

Following Lin Chen back to the vicinity of the Musk Ox herd, Andre saw him suddenly stop and quickly hid behind a thick tree.

’Strange, why am I hiding?’

He scratched his head, poked half his head out from behind the trunk, took a few peeks, and then pulled back.

’What’s Lin trying to do? Just observe the Musk Ox herd’s behavior?’

’Didn’t I tell him? A herd of Musk Ox this large is not to be trifled with. He hasn’t given up, has he?’

Although he was deeply wary of Lin Chen’s recent, noticeable growth, he didn’t want him to be eliminated this early.

From their few interactions, he could see that this young man from Great Xia was kind and sincere, a hard and diligent worker—a friend worth making.

If possible, it would be best if he survived a while longer.

With a ready-made cook around, why would he want to cook for himself?

Every extra meal he got was a bonus!

’If the kid really insists on provoking them, maybe I can even save him.’

He was very confident in his archery. He didn’t want to provoke the Musk Ox herd simply because he felt it was an unnecessary risk. If he really wanted to make a move, with their silly defensive formation, they were basically just stationary living targets.

Shooting one or two wouldn’t be a problem at all.

The more experienced a Hunter was, the more cautious they became. They had seen too many accidents. It was the greenhorns, new to the field, who were full of reckless drive.

He didn’t plan to stop Lin Chen. Sometimes, that’s just how it is. People can’t learn from being told, but they’ll remember a lesson taught by experience for the rest of their lives.

Lin Chen hadn’t noticed the person hiding more than two hundred meters away. He held the Engineer Shovel in his hand, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding woods.

’Carrying it by myself is definitely not an option. Even if I cut it into smaller pieces, the total weight doesn’t change. A few more people wouldn’t even be able to move three or four hundred kilograms of meat.’

As he thought about transporting goods in the snow, a few suitable tools slowly came to mind.

A sled?

A very familiar object caught his attention.

’That’s right. Musk Ox are native to the Arctic. So I just need to look at the tools used by the people who live in the Arctic.’

’Arctic peoples usually domesticate reindeer or moose to help pull cargo. That’s also the inspiration for Santa Claus. If you want to move heavy loads over snow, a sled is definitely the best choice.’

’But the problem is, they use herds of reindeer or moose to pull things, and those animals are strong enough on their own. I’m all by myself. Will I be able to pull it?’

He didn’t rush into it, first carefully studying the overall terrain from here to his shelter.

’My current position is on the mountainside. There’s at least a good few hundred meters of downhill slope. As long as I can get the sled started, gravity will do the work and it’ll slide down easily. Plus, the snow is slippery, so inertia will carry it even farther.’

’The rest of the way is mostly flat ground. The most difficult part will be the section leading to the shelter, which is uphill.’

’Going uphill is impossible. Right, I have the storehouse by the river. I can transport it there first, then move it in smaller batches. I have to go to the river to catch fish every day anyway. If I do that, the distance I have to pull it myself is only about three kilometers.’

After settling on a rough route, he began to look for suitable wood to build the sled, as well as materials to fasten it together.

’Reindeer pull wheelless sleds. It’s basically just a simple wooden bench mounted between two skis. The smaller the contact area with the snow, the less friction there is, making it easier to move.’

The front of the skis must be curved to prevent them from digging into the snow and causing the sled to flip over.

At the same time, the skis can’t be too narrow. If they’re too narrow, they’ll just sink into the snow. They need to have a cross-section about the width of a palm.

In that case, branches were out of the question. He had to use a tree trunk.

But tree trunks are straight; they wouldn’t have a naturally curved front section.

’I’ve got it. I can manually carve a curved section. That way, I can ensure the integrity of the ski and it won’t fall apart too quickly.’

This was a huge project, not something that could be finished in a short amount of time.

He soon selected a birch tree with a diameter of about thirty centimeters, roughly the width of two iPhones.

’Birch is a hardwood, so tools made from it are sturdy and reliable, even if the process of making them is exhausting.’

He stretched his body, gripped the Engineer Shovel with both hands, and aimed the axe blade at the trunk.

THUD

THUD

THUD

After several swings, a distinct gash appeared on the tree trunk.

The loud noise was especially clear in the quiet, snowy landscape. The nearby Musk Ox herd was instantly startled. A line of strong Musk Ox looked this way warily, already beginning to form a wall-like formation.

He just glanced in their direction and continued chopping the tree in front of him.

One swing down, the next swing horizontal. This chopping method conserved the most energy and also increased the felling efficiency.

With every two chops, a large wood chip would fall off. A deep notch was quickly cut into the trunk.

"Whew..."

Lin Chen wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead. It had only been a few minutes, but he was already sweating. His arms were trembling, a result of overexertion and the shock from the impacts on the trunk.

The cold wind blew, carrying a few snowflakes that struck his face, stinging like a knife’s cut.

He didn’t dare rest for too long. He had to finish the job in one go while his body was still warm, or he could easily catch a cold from the chill.

Once the notch was cut more than halfway through the trunk, he could try kicking it hard from the opposite side.

The missing section would unbalance the tree’s center of gravity. It would only take a little extra force, using the tree’s own weight, to make it fall.

He kicked it a few times, but it only swayed slightly. He went back and landed a few more blows with the axe, then kicked it again.

After repeating this four times, the birch tree finally gave way. It wobbled a few times before crashing heavily to the ground.

The break was ragged, so he landed a few more axe blows to sever all the clinging wood fibers. Only then was the job truly done.

’Birch may be a hardwood, but its bark is quite flexible. My spoon is made of birch bark. If I tear it into thin strips and tie them together, I wonder if they can serve as rope.’

He selected a suitable length, scored a circle around the top and bottom of the section on the trunk, and then made a vertical cut.

He poked the tip of his knife under the bark to lift it, then grabbed it and gently tore it downwards.

The winter bark was dry and lacked moisture, making it harder to tear. To keep it in one piece, he had to be patient and peel it off slowly.

After obtaining the whole sheet of bark, he had only taken the first step of a long march.

He searched his memory for the process of making rope from bark, and his expression quickly turned sour.

It wasn’t that it was difficult, just that the process was very time-consuming.

And most importantly, it required a fire.

While he had been busy working over here, the Musk Ox herd remained vigilant. They showed no sign of dispersing, but they also showed no intention of attacking.

’As long as you don’t provoke them, they won’t provoke you. Just maintain a safe distance.’

Sitting on the bare tree trunk, he laid the bark face-up on his lap. Holding the Engineer Shovel, he used its axe blade to scrape away the rough outer layer, leaving only the relatively soft, pale-yellow inner fibrous layer.

Some parts of the fibrous layer were too hard and also needed to be removed. He mainly kept the fine and flexible sections.

This step was the same as when he had made his bark spoon.

’Bark at this stage is fine for making a spoon, but it’s not soft enough for rope. It needs to be softened.’

’There are three ways to soften it. One is to soak it in water for at least a dozen hours. Another is to boil it, which is faster and makes it more pliable. The last is to heat it over a fire, but that can easily cause the bark to ignite.’

’I don’t have a pot right now, so boiling is obviously not an option. But I can compromise by combining two methods.’

The bark scraps he had just shaved off were perfect for tinder. He cleared away some nearby snow, collected some dry leaves and twigs for fuel, and built a mini-campfire.

He stuck four finger-thick branches into the ground, leaning their tops together, and filled the center with dry leaves and bark fragments.

He found a separate piece of deadwood, carved a flat surface on it, and used the tip of his knife to drill a hole near the edge, ensuring one side of the hole was open. Then he found a stick of similar thickness and wrapped his bowstring around it.

There was a specific way to do this. First, he caught the bowstring on the stick, pulled it taut, and rotated the bow 180 degrees, which naturally wrapped the string once around the stick.

Then he shaved the excess bark off the tip of the stick, leaving only the bare wood, and inserted it into the hole on the surface of the deadwood.

He used his left hand to press down on the top of the stick with a piece of wood he’d just carved, and with his right hand, he held the bow horizontally and began to move it back and forth.

As he moved the bow, the stick would naturally rotate with the movement of the bowstring, creating a ’bow drill’.

An ordinary person wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn this skill in daily life, and neither had he. He had just specifically watched some videos and knew the general idea of how to do it.

When he first started drilling, he couldn’t quite get the feel for it. Either the wooden block in his left hand would slip, or the bowstring would move up and down, preventing him from getting the drill speed up, or it would even cause the stick to slip out of the hole.

After practicing a dozen or so times, he finally started to get the hang of it.

As he drilled, his sense of balance became steadier and steadier, and the speed of the bow’s movement grew faster and faster.

He caught his breath, placed his chest camera flat on the ground, and aimed it at the hole for a close-up shot.

"I think I’m getting the hang of it. I should succeed next time!"

After a short two-minute rest, he picked up his tools again.

The stick spun faster and faster. Layers of wood dust trickled from the open side of the hole onto the dry leaves below, gradually piling up into a miniature hill.

Slowly, a wisp of smoke began to rise from the hole. The color of the falling wood dust changed from wood-brown to gray, and then to black.

Once the black dust appeared, the small hill of wood powder was rapidly dyed black before his eyes. The smoke rising from the drill hole also increased from one wisp to three. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

After another dozen or so rapid strokes, a drop of sweat dripped from Lin Chen’s forehead. Not daring to even breathe, he gently moved the stick away.

Inside the hole, a layer of black powder had now accumulated.

He cupped his fingers and fanned gently, sending fresh, oxygen-rich air toward it.

After fanning about a dozen times, a faint red glow quietly emerged from the embers.

He quickly stopped, carefully placed the tinder around the embers, and cupped the dry leaves in his hands, rocking them gently back and forth as if cradling a baby.

With ample oxygen, the spark quickly spread. The ash covering the surface was blown away by the airflow from his movements, revealing a large patch of glowing embers within.

The surrounding tinder ignited instantly. The dry leaves at the bottom also began to blacken, releasing an acrid-smelling plume of smoke.