Chapter 697 - 23: Shelter on the Mountain Peak (Part 3)
Before the shelter was completed, Chen Zhou and Paul had to stack the felled trees and first build a small shack to sleep peacefully.
Otherwise, Chen Zhou might have been fine, but Paul, with his poorer physical condition, could not sleep and was at risk of catching a cold again.
This situation persisted until Chen Zhou finished trimming the edges of the pit, chiseling out a neat rectangle, and started stacking stone walls on both sides, which slightly improved the situation—
Although the shelter had no roof at this point, and the stone walls on both sides joined by the weight of stones still let wind through, they could at least resist much of the cold and prevent rapid loss of body heat.
Even the little Serrated Tiger Cubs knew where it was comfortable. When there was nothing to do during the day, they would lie at the base of the walls, gazing blankly at Chen Zhou and Paul working, occasionally getting up to tussle for a bit, and then lying back down in the pit they had worn into the ground, dazing off.
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However, drawbacks and advantages always coexist.
The scarcity of animals meant no predators roamed the area. Without food, they wouldn’t venture to this godforsaken place.
The strong wind meant a wide field of vision, with the shelter situated on a sunny slope and surrounded by sparse trees; you could see over thirty kilometers from the mountain.
Sometimes, the weather was clear enough for Chen Zhou to see the herds of Mammoths moving on the Mammoth Grassland. He believed living here meant he could detect signs of people starting a fire or hunting large groups of animals on the grassland, allowing him to prepare in advance.
As for the low temperature, it also had its advantages, namely food preservation.
After hunting medium to large mammals, any excess meat could be taken to the mountaintop, where they would dig an ice cellar in the snow to freeze the meat.
Unfortunately, due to the scarcity of large animals on the mountain, and with Chen Zhou and Paul busy building the shelter and having no time to go down the mountain to hunt, coupled with needing to feed three increasingly hungry little Serrated Tigers, there was never any extra meat at home.
To use snow and ice to preserve food, they would at least have to wait until the shelter was built to act.
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After no less than thirteen days of hard work, the shelter made of stones and timber was finally completed.
The entire shelter stood 2.1 meters high indoors, with an approximate area of 25 square meters, built along the rectangular natural pit.
The thick stone walls on both sides of the shelter were packed with moss and tree bark inside and out, smeared with some pine resin to adhere, and coated with a layer of soil mixed with pine needles on the outermost layer; once completed, it had decent insulation performance.
The entrance was sealed with pine logs, stacking trunks with a simple mortise and tenon structure together, bound tightly, and reinforced with paracord. Moss was packed in the gaps between trunks and smeared with pine resin.
Since an operable door hinge couldn’t be made, Chen Zhou had to settle for making a "detachable" large door for the shelter.
The entire door was crafted from tree trunks as thick as thighs, weighing over 100 pounds. To close the door from outside, a round log was used to prop it shut; inside, the paracord had to be tightly fastened to a stake to ensure the wooden door wouldn’t topple outward.
If Chen Zhou had enough time, with his knowledge, he could have built a more spacious, aesthetically pleasing, and intricate shelter.
However, since the beginning of autumn, the temperature in the Baihar Mountain Range had been dropping by the day; looking down from the mountain, the vegetation of the Mammoth Grassland was turning to a wilted yellow, indicating the imminent arrival of a harsh winter.
Possibly in half a month or a month, the first frost would blanket the world in white.
At such a critical moment, storing food was far more important than perfecting the shelter. Moreover, to seize the airdropped supplies that might appear later, Chen Zhou also had to make weapons and armor, preparing for battle.
At such a time, how could he afford to put the cart before the horse?