Seeing his familiar shelter, James felt a sense of calm and his anxiety from being in the wild eased.
Now that the shelter was relocated, it was time to check the nearby resources he could utilize.
First, he returned to the shelter and took three hunting traps with him.
The forest around the shelter was livelier than the barren land he had been in, with numerous animals spotted along the way, even in winter when many were hibernating. If it weren't for the cold environment, there might have been even more diverse wildlife.
James wasn't particularly skilled in setting traps and had to rely on his instincts.
He noticed traces of wildlife activity in the grass, such as squirrel-nibbled pine cones, berries pecked by wild birds, footprints of various animals, and fresh droppings in the bushes. These signs revealed the animals' usual routes. Setting traps along these paths increased the chances of capturing something.
In a patch of yellow grass adorned with red berries, mostly eaten by birds, James set one of his traps. The other two were placed near a mouse hole and under a pine tree. The advantage of traps was that once set, he could attend to other tasks.
He planned to collect wood for making charcoal, as he didn't know how long the cold wave would last and needed a good stock of charcoal.
Returning to the white fir forest, now in the mist zone, James started chopping from the other end, closer to the shelter.
He quickly accumulated several piles of wood, but soon he encountered something unexpected.
The sound of bees. A thumb-sized bee was buzzing sorrowfully in the forest.
Looking up, James saw more bees flying around a certain area.
Could there be a beehive? Curious but cautious of bee stings, he didn't get too close.
From a distance, he could see many bees around a locust tree, particularly around a basin-sized tree hole about three meters up, buzzing busily in and out.
Realizing the presence of honey, James pondered whether he could harvest some.
However, approaching a beehive in the wild was risky. The safer method was to use smoke.
He returned to the shelter and used wood to start a fire. To produce enough smoke, he needed incomplete combustion of materials, so he collected damp leaves and soaked sawdust in water before burning them.
Soon, thick black smoke billowed up, enveloping the forest and passing by the tree hole, affecting the bees.
Directly putting burning materials into the hole would have been more effective, but also far more dangerous. He decided to take a slower, safer approach.
James didn't watch the fire continuously but added burning materials occasionally while continuing to chop wood.
After about an hour, he had collected 98 units of good-quality wood from a white fir tree. Returning to the beehive, he found many bees had fallen to the ground, incapacitated. The remaining ones seemed weak. The smoke had worked well.
Wondering if killing a bee would yield a wooden resource box, as bees were considered ordinary beasts by the system, James tried crushing a bee underfoot. After three seconds, no resource box appeared. "Seems it doesn't work; I was too imaginative, expecting such a bug," he sighed.
However, he continued to eliminate the bees on the ground, as they posed a threat near the shelter and white fir forest.
Surprisingly, after clearing many bees, a wooden resource box appeared, followed by a bronze one, which was unexpected.
James faced a dilemma: whether to completely destroy the hive.
It was an easy way to get resource boxes, but he ultimately decided to spare the hive, only clearing the bees on the ground. A stable source of resource boxes was too tempting.
For the rest of the time, he chopped more wood. With half an hour left, he began returning to the shelter. Transporting the wood took time, but the proximity to the forest made it easier.
Back at the shelter, he quickly checked the traps, hoping for game that would indicate a rich resource area.
Although Luke could hunt and provide steaks, having his own source of resources was better. No one could guarantee their partnership would last forever, and he didn't want to be left without meat.
At the first trap, there was no sign of activation. Disappointed, he moved to the second, which had been triggered but was empty, save for some rabbit fur. This indicated rabbits were around, and his trap placement was right. He continued to the third trap, where he heard a piteous squealing from afar.
"There's a catch!"