Live Strong in the Wilderness-Chapter 241: In Need of Transportation

The two of them kept walking upstream along the stream. Along the way, they didn’t find anything else, but they did see quite a few freshwater fish in the stream, with the largest being about palm-sized and the smallest about two fingers wide.

If there’s time, they could catch some to take back. Whether deep-fried or pan-fried, they should taste great.

Since they had to be wary of wild animals, the two of them chatted less during the journey.

Chatting would not only distract them but also affect their hearing.

Unknowingly, four hours had passed.

"Hungry? Let’s go rest under that tree and have lunch," Xu Yi pointed to a big tree in the distance. After walking for four hours and still not finding the big river, Xu Yi was a bit frustrated.

He was even starting to doubt whether the big river truly existed.

In four hours, they hadn’t been walking slowly, and they had covered quite a distance.

However, without a river, it would be difficult to explain the emergence of so many crocodiles that day.

Unless both he and Lu Ke hallucinated and the crocodiles they saw didn’t exist.

Once they reached the tree, Lu Ke took out some water and handed it to Xu Yi.

"Xu Yi, do you think those crocodiles went upstream or downstream?" Lu Ke asked Xu Yi while taking out some jerky.

"Hard to say. They’re amphibious reptiles, perfectly capable of living on land away from water. They might be scattered in the jungle," Xu Yi replied. Although crocodiles can live on land, they prefer being in water as it makes it easier for them to catch prey.

"Are we still heading upstream in the afternoon?" Lu Ke took a bite of the jerky and glanced at Xu Yi.

Considering how far they’d already walked, it would take at least three hours to run back. If they continued upstream, it would take even longer.

"Yeah, we’ll continue for another hour and a half and then head back. That way, we can return to the camp before dark," Xu Yi said. Since they were already out and hadn’t found anything yet, they had to push forward a bit further.

"I wonder if this planet has horses. If it did, it’d be great; we could explore farther. Relying just on our legs, the distance we can cover in a day is really limited," Lu Ke said expectantly. After all, many animals from their world existed here, so there might be horses too.

"Hard to say. But the chances of finding horses in the jungle are pretty low," Xu Yi replied. There aren’t many animals suitable for transportation, and even fewer that are fast.

If there were horses, it would indeed make things much easier.

"True, horses live on grasslands. But what about reindeer, besides horses?" Lu Ke thought they shouldn’t limit themselves to just horses and should consider other animals.

"Reindeer?" Xu Yi glanced at Lu Ke, then pondered for a moment.

"Lu Ke’s right. Reindeer could indeed be used as a means of transportation."

"Transportation, like Santa Claus?"

"The Ewenki Race uses reindeer as transportation. You might want to look into that."

"Reindeer are great, with speeds close to 50 kilometers per hour."

"Reindeer are the legendary ’four not alike,’ right? They could definitely be used as mounts."

"If we had mounts, that’d be amazing. But taming them isn’t easy. Although reindeer are said to be gentle, those are semi-domesticated; it’s hard to say for wild ones."

"I support them getting a reindeer to ride. That’d be truly unique."

"Actually, I wanted to say that the ancestors of horses didn’t live on grasslands but in forests. Who knows, they might encounter horses here."

Xu Yi took a bite of smoked meat, glanced at Lu Ke, and said, "Very tempting idea. I think we should give it a try. If we do manage to tame one, we’ll have mounts."

"Also, the reindeer here are quite tall; they might be faster than horses. But capturing one without harming it won’t be easy," Xu Yi added. He was indeed intrigued.

The maximum human sprint speed is 44 kilometers per hour, but that’s a burst speed lasting less than a minute. And that’s a rare case.

Typically, normal human speed is around ten kilometers per hour, and even Xu Yi and Lu Ke, as fit as they are, don’t exceed 25.

Reindeer can easily sustain 30 kilometers per hour and can keep that pace for close to a hundred kilometers.

Horses are even better than reindeer and more suited for long runs.

"It’s worth trying. If we succeed, we’d gain a lot. Four legs have got to be faster than two," Lu Ke said joyfully, feeling that Xu Yi embracing her suggestion was something truly delightful.

"Yeah, tonight we’ll make some rope snares and then look for reindeer to see if we can catch one," Xu Yi said, knowing it would be tough to tame a wild animal.

But, what if they succeeded?

After lunch, they continued walking upstream.

In just over ten minutes, they noticed the stream getting wider along the banks, seemingly stretching more and more.

Xu Yi felt they might be close to finding the big river.

Seeing this, both of them quickened their pace.

The stream grew wider, with the broadest part stretching over three meters.

"Xu Yi, we’ve found the big river," Lu Ke exclaimed joyfully. Just as they thought, there really was a big river.

"Be careful; there might be crocodiles around," Xu Yi warned, drawing his machete, which was handy for dealing with crocodiles.

Just chopping off a crocodile’s snout would render it harmless.

Best to chop off the top part of the snout to ensure maximum safety, preventing any bites. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A crocodile without a snout poses no threat at all.

Lu Ke nodded, looked around, and continued to follow Xu Yi forward.

Then, they saw a river that was about ten meters wide.

The river water was somewhat murky, so it was unclear how deep it was.

"There’s a crocodile over there," Xu Yi pointed to the river in the distance, where a crocodile was lurking.

"There should be plenty of fish in this river, right? We could try making a net with hemp rope next time," Lu Ke suggested, glancing at the distant crocodile.

"Yeah, probably. There were a lot of fish in our stream, let alone in such a big river," Xu Yi pondered. The river didn’t seem too deep, probably just a meter or two.

However, Xu Yi was more intrigued by the other side, which was full of shrubs and quite expansive.

The flying giant beasts must be hunting in this area.

As he thought about it, he saw a shadow sweep across the sky, seemingly having spotted him and Lu Ke.

Was the flying giant beast going to attack them?