Wilderness Survival with Druid System

The afternoon passed quickly.

But unfortunately, Chen Wen didn’t manage to achieve his goal.

Originally, he’d planned to spend the entire afternoon getting down the mountain, but plans never keep up with change.

Toward dusk, Chen Wen was blocked once again by a cliff cutting off his path.

”You’ve got to be kidding me, the Association’s notes on the draw locations are messed up! How long has it been since they updated this?”

As Chen Wen spoke, he recalled the documents.

According to the Association’s records, this should have been a steep slope he could descend by, basically a shortcut.

But when Chen Wen came in person, that original slope had probably turned into a broken or collapsed glacier, or maybe it had been eroded away by the wind.

It had gone from a steep slope to a sheer drop.

The change in terrain completely ruined Chen Wen’s plan to spend the night down in Qiangtang.

So Chen Wen had no choice but to find a somewhat sheltered spot to make do for another night.

The Golden Eagle landed beside Chen Wen, keeping him company through his second night in Qiangtang.

At dusk, Chen Wen took out the argali meat again, cut it into strips, and fed them to the Golden Eagle to help it recover its strength.

”You’ve had meat, so don’t slack off tonight.”

Chen Wen said to the Golden Eagle, ”Tonight the two of us will take turns standing watch. Last night we had rock crevices as cover so we didn’t need a watch, but tonight’s different. We don’t have much of any cover, we can only rest on the side of this little rise, and there’s still a strong smell of raw meat and blood giving away our position, so we have to be careful!”

Hearing Chen Wen’s serious tone, the Golden Eagle nodded.

It realized it was back in a dangerous environment like Yukon again and had to bring out its old vigilance!

Thinking of this, the wildness that hadn’t completely faded from the Golden Eagle’s bones flared up again, and its eyes grew a bit sharper.

It was still a little timid, but it finally looked somewhat like a raptor.

Seeing the Golden Eagle’s change, Chen Wen nodded in satisfaction. ”You take the first half of the night, I’ll take the second. If there’s danger, remember to wake me up.”

The Golden Eagle nodded, flapped its wings, and landed higher up on the little hill.

Taking the high ground, its eyes swept the surroundings like searchlights.

Chen Wen relaxed and began to rest.

...

Soon, it was time to change shifts.

The Golden Eagle woke Chen Wen, and, a bit tired itself, quickly fell into deep sleep.

Chen Wen stood up, yawning, and loosened up his body a bit.

He got his somewhat stiff body moving again, and at the same time drove away his drowsiness.

The first half of the night had been uneventful; aside from the occasional sound of rocks falling from above, the wind, and a stray wolf howl now and then, there was pretty much nothing.

After moving around, Chen Wen sat down on the side of the little hill.

The night wind was strong; listening to the howling gusts, he started his watch.

But as the wind gradually died down, Chen Wen suddenly felt a bit uneasy.

It was too quiet!

This place was eerily desolate.

Chen Wen couldn’t help thinking.

Even in the Great Sand Desert, you can hear some insects at night.

But here, there was nothing.

It was like there was no living thing at all.

As the silence dragged on, the unease in Chen Wen’s heart felt like it was being magnified under a lens, growing bigger and bigger.

And just as Chen Wen was starting to get a bit irritable—

Suddenly, a series of very faint sounds came from his left.

A soft crack, very light, like rocks squeezing together.

That was the direction of the mountain.

Chen Wen’s brows knitted; his earlier impatience vanished into thin air.

It was as if he’d found an outlet to vent his restlessness; he grabbed his long spear and sprang to his feet.

Chen Wen stared in the direction of the sound. Whatever was there had sharp senses too; once it noticed Chen Wen stand up, it immediately stopped moving.

This time around, Chen Wen hadn’t brought any starting perk that enhanced his Perception Ability, so right now he could only rely on his own senses to judge where the other side was.

Chen Wen lifted his foot lightly and took a step toward where the sound had come from.

In the dark, that thing also sensed that Chen Wen was trying to get closer.

It immediately let out a warning call of sorts.

Hearing the sound, Chen Wen was stunned on the spot.

The hell?

What the hell kind of noise is that?

It felt to Chen Wen like he was hearing a cat hissing—no, not even as threatening as a cat’s hiss.

It was a kind of warbling, grumbling sound, but somehow... soft?

Chen Wen lowered his spear and completely understood what had come over— that Snow Leopard.

”Shoo! Don’t wander around! Go back to your den and have your kittens!”

Chen Wen scolded, and gave the rock at his feet a hard whack with the butt of his spear.

The clang of steel on stone made the Snow Leopard lose its nerve.

It didn’t dare come closer and quickly left.

...

The Snow Leopard didn’t come near again afterward.

To be honest, Chen Wen found this Snow Leopard really strange.

It was almost at its due date, yet instead of staying in its hidden den for breeding, it was wandering around outside.

It had even taken the initiative to approach a human.

Tsk, tsk, weird, weird.

If it weren’t in its birthing period, Chen Wen would actually have liked to follow it and see what its deal was.

But as things were, Chen Wen had no desire to invite that trouble.

He went back to the Golden Eagle’s side, hugged his knees, and continued his watch.

Before long, dawn arrived.

Chen Wen glanced at the sky; the weather looked pretty good today, like it was going to be a fine day.

Today was the third day of the survival challenge, and Chen Wen had already been hungry for two days.

Looked like this opening really had been a bit rough.

Chen Wen thought as he stretched and moved his body.

But this level of hardship wasn’t enough to rattle his mindset.

He hefted the argali meat and had the Golden Eagle search for a suitable slope to go down the mountain, while he planned to continue exploring ahead.

But just as Chen Wen set out—

The Golden Eagle, circling in the sky, gave a cry, signaling Chen Wen to look back toward the mountain behind him.

He looked up, and his face darkened again.

Well, great— that Snow Leopard that was about to give birth still hadn’t left!

Chen Wen couldn’t help sighing. With a ”whatever” attitude, he waved at the Snow Leopard up on the slope. ”If we’re fated to meet, come on over. I’ll share some food with you.”

The Snow Leopard hesitated when it saw Chen Wen’s gesture.

But it seemed to sense the goodwill radiating off of him and the effect of his Friendly aura. After wavering for a moment, it slowly walked toward Chen Wen.

Seeing the Snow Leopard’s behavior, Chen Wen frowned slightly.

Something’s off!

A truly wild Snow Leopard couldn’t possibly trust humans this much!

Could this be a Snow Leopard that had been tamed and then released?

Or one that had been helped by humans before?

Either way, judging from how it was acting now, Chen Wen felt it was almost certainly one of those two situations.

So he stopped seeing the Snow Leopard as just trouble, and instead took out some argali meat, placing it about two or three meters away from himself.

Seeing the meat, the Snow Leopard didn’t hesitate at all; it even quickened its pace a bit and came up in front of Chen Wen.

It opened its mouth and, under Chen Wen’s gaze, chomped down on the argali meat in one bite.