After making a circuit, he found the woods quiet, with no fresh signs of activity apart from a few old tracks buried under windblown snow.
Only then did Su Wei relax.
He returned to the devil's claw and propped his Browning rifle securely against a dead tree trunk where it wouldn't slip, the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
Then he crouched down and got to work.
He didn't use his entrenching shovel to chop straight through the root. That would have been too crude.
The most valuable part was the root bark. Digging carelessly would damage its appearance and medicinal properties.
With the blade of his entrenching shovel, he scraped away the rock-hard snow and frozen earth around the root bit by bit.
The work was far more tiring than it looked.
The frozen ground was as hard as iron. Every strike of the shovel could only chip a white mark into the surface, and the recoil made the web between his thumb and forefinger tingle.
Fragments of icy soil kept spattering his face.
Cotton Candy curiously edged closer and tilted the little head, seemingly unable to understand why this two-legged creature was so intent on a rotten tree root.
Su Wei was absorbed in digging. He worked slowly but patiently and precisely, clearing away a little at a time and digging ever deeper, intent on extracting the entire root system intact.
Time passed bit by bit.
After more than half an hour, the devil's claw's main root finally emerged.
It was thicker than Su Wei had expected, as thick as his forearm at its widest point. Sharp spikes glinting coldly covered its grayish-brown skin.
Su Wei pulled out his Swiss Army knife and used its small saw to make a precise cut about thirty centimeters from the main stem.
Creak... creak...
The tough root fibers made a sound that set his teeth on edge.
When the last strand was severed, he finally pulled out a half-meter length of devil's claw, complete with its fine roots!
[Ding! Successfully gathered rare medicinal plant devil's claw. Quality: excellent. Gathering Module experience +23!]
A line of pale blue text appeared in his field of vision.
Twenty-three experience points!
Just one plant had given him a full twenty-three experience points!
Warmth surged in Su Wei's chest as the Gathering Module's experience bar jumped by a large chunk.
Gathering Module LV1 (97/100).
Only three more experience points until it leveled up!
He immediately picked up the pace.
The Gathering Module proved invaluable once again.
In his field of vision, a green glow even stronger than the previous one pierced through the snow beneath a pile of dead vines a short distance ahead to his left.
There was another one!
And it seemed to be older, too!
Su Wei carefully placed his newly acquired treasure on a clean waterproof sheet, then immediately turned to his new target.
With his first experience behind him, he worked much more skillfully this time.
When he gathered another devil's claw of even better quality, the long-awaited sound finally rang out in his mind.
[Ding! Gathered rare medicinal plant devil's claw. Quality: outstanding. Gathering Module experience +55!] [Ding! Gathering Module experience is full. Level increased to LV2!] [Gathering Module LV2 (52/300): scanning range increased to a thirty-meter radius. Can sense a plant's age, approximate active ingredients, and potential value. New passive effect: Herbal Identification, slightly increases accuracy when identifying medicinal plants.]
It had leveled up!
Su Wei felt the soreness in his muscles ease considerably.
He immediately concentrated and activated the upgraded module's effects!
In an instant, the world within thirty meters of him changed.
Plants that had previously shown only blurry green glows were now clearly labeled.
[Wild rose hips, edible, rich in vitamin C. Value: $0.10/lb] [Spruce bark, usable as tinder or for making simple containers. Value: negligible]
His gaze snapped toward the slope beneath the rock face!
Green halos, some bright and some faint, lit up one after another, seven or eight in all!
[Devil's claw, root age: approximately 15 years. Active ingredients: high. Estimated value: $280/lb (dry weight)] [Devil's claw, root age: approximately 21 years. Active ingredients: extremely high. Estimated value: $400/lb (dry weight)]
Looking at that string of numbers, Su Wei's breathing quickened.
I'm rich!
I've fucking stumbled into a nest of Alaskan ginseng!
Just as I thought, this largely undeveloped part of Kodiak Island is full of treasures!
He suppressed his excitement and dug furiously, racing against nightfall.
With the module's guidance, he no longer had to search painstakingly. Every shovelful had a clear target, and his efficiency was frightening.
The minutes and seconds ticked by.
The sun began to sink westward, its fading light staining the snow orange-red.
The temperature dropped quickly.
By the time Su Wei dug out the last valuable devil's claw root, he was too exhausted to straighten his back. His forehead was covered in sweat, and the white mist of his breath lingered before his eyes.
On the waterproof sheet in front of him lay a pile of more than a dozen roots of various sizes, with a rough estimated wet weight of over thirty pounds.
Even if their weight halved after drying, at the module's lowest estimate, they were still worth the enormous sum of over eight thousand dollars!
Adding the money from selling the chaga and subtracting what he had already spent, he had nearly ten thousand dollars in cash.
That money immediately took a great deal of pressure off his debt repayment.
The minimum payment had been cut by a third in one stroke!!!
Su Wei's breathing grew heavy. Such an astonishing haul on his very first day in the mountains stirred powerful emotions in him.
His joy was hard to conceal.
More importantly, he had gained confidence.
As long as he could keep using the module to make money from this wilderness, the debt of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars would no longer be a despair-inducing astronomical figure, but a goal he could achieve.
Su Wei dropped onto his backside in the snow, unscrewed his canteen, and took a long swig of warm water. At last, he caught his breath.
He glanced at the sky. He had to find a safe place to camp before dark.
After tying all the devil's claw roots together with rope and carefully securing them to the outside of his hiking pack, Su Wei hoisted the heavy pack onto his back again.
This time, his steps felt a little lighter.
"Cotton Candy, let's go find somewhere to spend the night."
At his call, the little fox immediately set off, running ahead.
Instead of retracing his steps, Su Wei studied the terrain and headed toward a mountain hollow sheltered from the wind.
The dangers of the mountain forest multiplied at night.
He had to find a good campsite that would shelter him from the wind and protect him from wild animals.
His gaze swept quickly through the woods.
He couldn't camp at the bottom of a valley, where cold air collected and could freeze a person to death.
He couldn't camp below a steep slope, either; he had to watch out for falling rocks and avalanches.
And he certainly couldn't camp too close to a water source, where animals liked to go.
After about twenty minutes, Cotton Candy stopped in a sheltered nook formed by large rocks and several thick spruce trees.
The ground here was slightly elevated, fairly level, and dry. The large rocks blocked the wind from two directions.
Su Wei surveyed the area and thought, This is the place.
He took off his heavy pack and let out a long breath, the bones throughout his body cracking pleasantly.
He took his newly purchased orange four-season tent out of his pack.
The bright orange stood out in the snowy forest at dusk. It was a safe color.
Even if something went wrong and he called a helicopter for rescue, they would be able to find him quickly.
He undid the straps, first spread out a waterproof sheet, then laid the tent fabric flat on the cleared ground.
Then he took out the folding tent poles, joined the cold sections together one by one, and threaded them through the tent's fabric sleeves.