The sky grew darker, and the temperature dropped rapidly.
He had to find somewhere to spend the night before dark.
His tent was gone. Spending the night in the snow, even with a fire, he wouldn't withstand temperatures dozens of degrees below zero.
Su Wei shouldered his pack again and slung his rifle diagonally across his chest, so he could react in time if he encountered danger.
As he struggled along the trail he remembered, he scanned his surroundings with the Gathering Module.
He needed a dry place sheltered from the wind, preferably with something natural to block it.
After walking for another half hour or more, he was exhausted.
His lungs burned, and his legs felt like lead. Every step took tremendous effort.
Just as he was about to collapse and was thinking of finding a random spot to dig a snow cave, a bright point of light suddenly appeared in his vision!
It was several times brighter than the lingonberries, and it glowed a warm yellow!
It was beneath a low rock face about fifteen meters ahead and to his right.
Su Wei perked up!
Treasure!
He immediately turned and trudged toward the rock face, his feet sinking unevenly into the snow.
Only when he got closer did he see that it was a protruding rock, with a natural hollow beneath it carved out by wind and snow.
The hollow was about two or three meters deep, and a person could enter by bending over.
Most importantly, it blocked the fierce wind blowing from the north!
The ground was higher than the surrounding area, and the snow wasn't deep. It looked quite dry.
An excellent temporary shelter!
And the bright yellow point of light was outside the cave.
On a dead birch tree.
Su Wei didn't rush over to investigate.
He tightened his grip on his Browning rifle and cast a sharp glance at the snow outside the entrance.
The snow was clean, with no tracks from large animals.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
Rifle at the ready, he crouched low and edged toward the entrance one step at a time.
A musty smell drifted out from inside.
He poked his head in and saw that the cave was bigger than he'd thought. There was enough room to lie down with his legs stretched out.
Su Wei checked the place over and found that it seemed to be a den abandoned by some kind of small animal.
There were also some dried droppings and white hairs inside.
Su Wei used a branch to clear away the droppings, then picked up the hairs and examined them thoughtfully.
Many small animals could have white fur, such as snowshoe hares.
But these hairs didn't look like that at all.
On the contrary, they seemed to be red fox fur??
Su Wei's expression grew serious as he carefully compared them with the memories in his head.
According to those memories, the original owner of his body had come up the mountain this time to hunt a special albino red fox.
An employer had posted a bounty in town: a full eight thousand dollars for one!
The reason was that someone had previously ventured deep into Pillar Mountain and spotted an albino red fox with blue eyes. It was extremely rare!
As word spread, a fox-breeding kennel had posted a bounty.
It had risen from an initial five thousand dollars all the way to eight thousand.
Unfortunately, no one had spotted it again in a whole month.
Then the original owner had been tempted by the bounty and decided to try his luck on the mountain.
Unfortunately, he had died in the mountains just like that.
Still, Alaska had no shortage of such creatures.
If he could run into that albino red fox just by picking a cave at random, he'd really have struck it lucky.
Not to mention, this cave had clearly already been abandoned.
Su Wei shook his head and put aside the unrealistic thought.
The urgent task at hand was getting through tonight.
But first, he would see what that warm glow actually was.
Su Wei approached the dead tree and searched carefully.
He found clusters of black mushrooms growing in the gaps between its branches.
They looked like lumps of charcoal, their surfaces covered in cracks. They were very ugly.
But the yellow light from the module's prompt was indeed shining on those mushrooms, and it was bright.
[Name: black chaga (Inonotus obliquus)] [Value: cannot be eaten directly, but can be used as a top-grade medicinal fungus. Extremely valuable on the market once dried. Can be steeped in water or boiled to quickly replenish stamina and strengthen immunity.]
Su Wei's eyes went wide!
Inonotus obliquus!
It was also known as the forest diamond, and it was frighteningly expensive!
Never in his dreams had he imagined he'd find such a huge cluster here!
This wasn't just food! It was money!
It was hope for paying off his massive thirty-thousand-dollar debt! It was also his first pot of gold!
The albino red fox was a long shot, but what lay before him was a real, tangible reward!!
He quickly put down his pack and pulled out his Swiss Army knife. His fingers trembled with excitement as he pried at the fungus.
He carefully pried the black fungal chunks off whole.
The large ones were the size of his fist, and even the small ones were as big as eggs. They felt heavy in his hands.
Su Wei felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment, and the surprise seemed to dispel some of his exhaustion.
He found some leaves, carefully wrapped up the treasures, and tucked them deep inside his backpack.
He also made a point of using his entrenching shovel to form a protective layer around them.
After that, Su Wei breathed a sigh of relief, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from rising.
With this cave and the chaga, tonight's taken care of!
[Notice: successfully gathered 16 pounds of black chaga. Gathering experience +71.] [Gathering Module lv1 (71/100)]
Gathering really could level it up. It was joy upon joy.
He'd found a cave and the chaga, and he'd gained experience too.
Su Wei was smiling so broadly his eyes nearly disappeared, but the cold wind soon snapped him out of it.
Now wasn't the time to stand around grinning.
He hesitated no longer and immediately set about tidying up his temporary home.
He used his entrenching shovel to clear the snow from the entrance, then leveled the ground inside the cave.
Then he went outside and used his axe to chop some dead branches from nearby spruce trees.
He needed plenty of firewood, enough to burn all night.
Darkness fell quickly, and the temperature plummeted. His breath instantly formed frost on his eyebrows.
Su Wei kept working, dragging the chopped wood back into the cave and stacking it just inside the entrance.
Next, he used the remaining scraps of tent fabric and several large pieces of tree bark to build a simple windbreak across the entrance, leaving only an opening to get in and out.
Finally, he cleared a space in the middle of the cave and used a few rocks to make a simple fire pit.
He took a magnesium fire starter and his knife from his pack, then scraped it hard with the back of the blade.
"Sshhk!"
Sparks landed on the dry wood shavings he'd made, and a small flame sprang up at once.
Su Wei held his breath and carefully added thin twigs. Once the fire was burning steadily, he slowly laid on thicker pieces of wood.
The flames leaped up, driving away the damp chill in the cave. Orange-red firelight shone on his frozen face, bringing a trace of warmth.
The warmth reached all the way into his heart.