Chapter 37: A Bounty of Wild Boar Meat

Before long, the male wild boar's neck was dripping with blood, the bright red flowing down, dropping onto the white snow. By this time, the bees' attacks were effective, their stingers piercing flesh and snake venom easily entering the bloodstream. James's plan had succeeded greatly.

As the venom entered and spread throughout the wild boar's body, its effects began to show. 

During its struggles, the wild boar could distinctly feel its body becoming increasingly unresponsive and numb. It charged against the rock walls in an attempt to regain control, but this was futile and only exacerbated the wounds.

The female wild boar, initially just watching curiously, began to emit a deep, mournful sound when she noticed something was wrong, but she didn't know how to help.

The snake venom was more effective than expected. In just over ten minutes, the male wild boar leaned against the rock wall, panting heavily, barely moving. A look of triumph appeared on James's face: "We did it!"

Next, they planned to use the same method on the remaining female wild boar. There was not much snake venom left, just enough for 600 bees. But after the attack of 600 bees, the female wild boar also nearly lost its ability to fight.

Seeing both giant beasts incapacitated by the venom and exhaustion, lying unconscious on the ground, James and Luke cautiously came out. Luke personally finished off the two mighty beasts.

To avoid the snake venom contaminating the meat, they immediately began to butcher the carcasses on the spot. Fortunately, the venom did not affect the collection of the meat.

From the two huge beasts, they collected 38 pieces of high-quality meat, 6 blood essence, 8 large bones, 15 jin (approximately 7.5 kg) of pork fat, and two bronze resource boxes. 

A truly rich harvest! James estimated that if most of the meat had not condensed into blood essence, there would have been at least a hundred pieces of high-quality meat. But there was nothing they could do about that.

Meanwhile, the two young wild boars were also captured and became part of their haul. At this time, they could see the information about the wild boars.

[Name: Ironback Mountain Boar (High-Quality) 

Description: A powerful predator of the mountains, with a hard and thick iron back, huge size, and formidable strength.]

Such powerful high-quality mountain boars, if not for the massive bee swarm's suicidal attacks, Luke alone would never have been able to handle them. 

Luke couldn't help but exclaim: "The beasts here completely surpass those on Earth, and these are just high-quality beasts..."

James replied with a wry smile: "Yes, in this damned foggy world, just eating and staying warm, just surviving, is already hard enough."

While talking, they tied up the two young Ironback Mountain Boars with vines. These young boars, only ordinary beasts, stood about 30 inches tall and weighed no more than 20 jin (approximately 10 kg). In their hands, they posed no threat.

After handling the young boars, Luke looked towards the cave, the home of the four-boar family. "Let's go in and see if they stored any food," he said.

They walked into the cave, which wasn't deep and had light shining into it, making it easy to see inside. They saw a pile of dry, yellow straw, likely the sleeping spot for the family of four, still retaining some warmth.

At the end of the cave, instead of stored food for winter, they found a pile of broken swords and weapons. James, shocked, quickly went to examine them, his heart filled with surprise: How could there be swords here? Were there other survivors nearby?

With many questions brewing in his mind, he felt increasingly uneasy. Luke also frowned and examined them, finding something odd: "These swords... they're not normal."

"Not normal?" James looked puzzled but quickly noticed the issue. 

The craftsmanship of these weapons was crude, not refined, containing many impurities. 

This indicated they were not products of the system. 

The system's items were always well-made and of high quality, not like these rough and cheap items.

Moreover, these sword remnants were severely rusted and corroded, showing signs of age. These were not left here recently but were weapons that had been here for a very long time.

This discovery was somewhat reassuring to James, but it brought new questions. 

Where did these weapons come from? 

Could there be other original inhabitants in this foggy world besides Earth's humans? 

Or, centuries ago, was there a civilization like Earth's humans that was transported here by this mysterious force? 

All of this was unknown.

James consoled himself that at least this wasn't the worst discovery. Since these weapons were over a hundred years old, if there had been people here, it was centuries ago, not a current concern. 

For now, they had only found their own tracks around the shelter. No survivors had ever found others in this foggy world.

Putting aside the broken weapons for now, they continued to search the cave but found nothing of significance. 

So, they returned outside and packed up their haul. More than half of the four hours of daylight had passed. The sun was again obscured by thick clouds, and the visibility darkened.

"James, we should head back soon. Looking at the weather, it might snow again!" Luke said seriously, looking at the sky.

"Alright, today's haul is enough. Let's head back quickly. Katrina is waiting for you."

The journey back took nearly half an hour because the meat was so heavy to transport. 

Indeed, there was a difference in meat. This batch of Ironback Mountain Boar meat was more than double the size and weight of bamboo rat and hare meat. And the rich pork aroma was incomparable to ordinary wild beast meat.

When they returned to the shelter, both were exhausted. But the physical fatigue was nothing compared to the satisfaction and joy in their hearts. James would gladly do it ten more times.

After arranging all the meat, materials, and resource boxes in the yard, they finally relaxed. 

Luke, stronger, was still panting: "James, I didn't realize when I first came, but your shelter has developed so well! A basement, a yard twice the size, animal pens, a vegetable garden, and even such a big pond... There are fish in here?!"

Regaining some strength, Luke began to tour James's shelter. The area was much larger than other shelters, and the facilities were impressively abundant.

"Is this rice you're growing? There's even wheat here?!"

"Uh, that's winter wheat... And don't touch that rice. It's high-quality, very precious!" James warned, concerned.

Luke, startled, quickly withdrew his hand: This stuff is high-quality?

"My God, there's a wild chicken here... And there's quite a bit of honey in these two beehives, right?!"

"And this pond, one, two, three, four, five... ten fish! And these lotus leaves, they're the Qingyue algae you fed me yesterday, right? Tsk tsk, all high-quality!"

"Eh, what's this, a

 large patch of thorns? Did you plant this specially?"