Wilderness Survival with Druid System-Chapter 379 - 48: Funnel Fish Trap

After breaking the tusk of the young hippopotamus, Chen Wen immediately backed away.

The young hippopotamus had already stood up.

But its eyes were completely clear now.

It looked at Chen Wen and the near-bloodthirsty hippopotamus.

Its heart was even more afraid.

The pain and humiliation of losing its tusk made it want to fight to the death, but its desire to survive made it turn and flee.

With a splash, the young hippopotamus rushed into the water, fleeing west in a panic.

Seeing this scene, the hippopotamus felt its chest clear of resentment.

It let out a long roar, declaring to its former herd and all the herds along the river: it was still the king of hippos.

With the roar of the hippopotamus, the young hippopotamus fled even faster.

Even the usually calm hippopotamus group was a bit restless at this moment.

However, the hippopotamus did not approach its herd or harem, but instead turned to look at Chen Wen.

"Human, I will follow you until death! Even if it means staying away from all my kind starting today."

The hippopotamus said solemnly.

Chen Wen was startled by the hippopotamus’s sudden vow.

He looked at the hippopotamus somewhat at a loss, and after organizing his words, Chen Wen said, "Me too! No, wait!"

Scratching his head, Chen Wen gave up on flamboyant words and sincerely said, "I will provide you shelter until you grow old. Additionally, there are others like you, animals that can understand my speech, who have already chosen to follow me."

"When you meet them, I can make sure you communicate with them seamlessly; then you’ll understand, you won’t be lonely."

Saying this, Chen Wen reached out and gently patted the hippopotamus’s body.

Once again using [Animal Doctor], he healed the hippopotamus’s wound.

...

After a battle, the hippopotamus was reconciled.

He also picked up a tusk from the young hippopotamus.

There wasn’t much material gain, but there was plenty of spiritual gain.

Chen Wen rode the hippopotamus, feeling deeply emotional.

Am I now a qualified Druid?

Definitely.

After all, the system’s evaluation was that I am a mature Druid.

Hehe.

Chen Wen chuckled foolishly, causing the monitor to feel a bit puzzled again.

What’s the big guy thinking about now?

He’s so happy?

Back at the camp, Chen Wen ate crocodile meat, and his pleasant mood lasted until the afternoon.

"Oh, right, today I have to figure out how to catch some fish."

Chen Wen muttered to himself and began studying fishing.

For tiger fish and tiger toothed carps, Chen Wen planned to use traps to catch them.

The trap he uses is a freshwater-adapted funnel trap.

Simply put, it’s about using mud and stones to encircle a small area in a semicircle on the river bank.

Bait is thrown into this semicircle to attract fish into it. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

But the entrance to this area is specially designed.

The entrance is made using plants and wood.

The wood is sharpened, with the pointed ends facing inward, and clustered together.

Forming a cone-shaped funnel.

Entry from the outside is fairly easy.

The fish can use their bodies to push open the arranged wood and plants and swim in.

But trying to get out is difficult.

The sharp wood would block the fish from exiting; forcing one’s way out physically is quite hard.

As for jumping out,

Most fish have average jumping abilities.

Furthermore, Chen Wen would use plants and stones to create obstacles, further increasing the difficulty of jumping out.

It can be said that once fish come in, the chance of escaping is less than ten percent.

This trap was learned by Chen Wen in the survival association’s comprehensive trap guide from predecessors.

The name sounds a bit unreliable, but it’s actually quite useful.

It’s the crystallization of traps’ experience from the predecessors in the association through the generations.

What Chen Wen read was the electronic version, which even included some usage experiences left by predecessors.

As for Tilapia, Chen Wen now has a rather bold plan.

That is to use the hippopotamus.

To have the hippopotamus drive the Tilapia school into shallow waters, thereby achieving the goal of capturing Tilapia.

Chen Wen roughly thought this plan through, it requires the hippopotamus to play the main role.

It greatly tests its observation and anticipatory abilities.

After all, trying to drive flexible fish schools to a designated area is quite a complex task.

He worried that the hippopotamus couldn’t do it.

But there was no better way now, he could only let the hippopotamus try it first.

If it really doesn’t work, then he’ll just make fishing hooks, lines, rods, and fish for Tilapia himself.

...

After the plan was clarified.

Chen Wen began execution.

The first step was to set up the fishing traps for tiger fish and tiger toothed carps.

There were countless sticks in Caprivi.

Thanks to the unique environment, the plant growth rate here was very fast.

Moreover, because elephants are rampant, many trees in the forest have been broken by them.

These trees are the best source of sticks.

After wandering around the forest, Chen Wen picked up a lot of sticks and leaves.

These are the key materials for making funnel fishing traps.

As for stones, Chen Wen remembered a stone riverbank passed during his outing with the hippopotamus.

He could just take materials locally.

Once the trap-making materials were ready, Chen Wen started heading towards the river to set the traps.

The place he chose was on the west side of the shelter, about one kilometer away.

This distance is not far; checking it once a day doesn’t take much time.

After putting down the materials, Chen Wen checked the surrounding environment once more.

There weren’t many Nile crocodiles, the hippopotamus herd was closer but not dangerous.

Furthermore, with the hippopotamus concentrated here, there was more food for the fish school.

The water surface was wide, relatively calm, and the underwater terrain was quite level.

Very suitable for setting up funnel traps.

After running a short distance further to the west, Chen Wen reached the stone riverbank and carried some stones away with his backpack.

...

"Then, let’s start setting the trap!"

Chen Wen rubbed his hands together, a determined look on his face as if preparing for a big task.

Holding a spear, he marked out the rough scale of the fishing trap in the river water.

Then placed stones, using them as a foundation to make the trap more robust.

About half an hour passed.

Chen Wen looked at the semicircle formed by stones, estimating in his mind whether the trap’s size was appropriate.

The answer was that it was slightly large.

Chen Wen scratched his head and said, "The trap seems to be a bit too big. This way, the workload will be larger, and the trap’s quality might be affected."

"Let’s adjust it, move these stones a bit inward."

Chen Wen got to work and transformed a perfect semicircle into a twisted semicircle.

Someone with OCD would certainly find it uncomfortable.

But Chen Wen didn’t have OCD; he felt pretty good about it.

Next was building the dike with mud and soil.

Chen Wen rolled up his sleeves and started working; mud and soil could be sourced locally.

This task was labor-intensive, taking Chen Wen about fifty minutes.

Additionally, because of the river water’s erosion, the mud would easily get carried away once placed.

At this point, the plants he collected came into play.

Chen Wen collected branches from trees with lush leaves.

After placing these leafy branches on the dike, the dense leaves mitigated the erosion from the river water.

Allowing the mud and soil to be preserved.

Next, was the most crucial part: the funnel.

Patiently, Chen Wen knelt in the river water, placing sticks.

Arranging the sticks was also challenging; he had to consider the water flow and the riverbed soil.

This took Chen Wen quite some time.

Seeing that it was almost dark, Chen Wen reluctantly managed to position the sticks.

Fixing them once more with remaining stones, he inspected the trap overall again.

"It looks okay, but I wonder how effective it will be. Putting all this effort into it; if not a single fish is caught in the end, I’ll have to give a bad review when I go back."

Chen Wen said, tearing the crocodile meat he brought into small pieces and throwing them into the trap.

Everything was ready, just waiting for the fish to bite.