Chapter 104 Two Gunshots

"Your luck isn't too good, seems like there are no wild boars nearby."

After blowing the attracting whistle several times without any response, Victor chuckled and shrugged, as if fate intended to make it more challenging for Carter.

Carter could only smile wryly, expressing his inner helplessness.

"Alright, let's go. Turn on the spotlight, we'll teach you how to track wild boar traces."

With the spotlight on, the group ventured into the woods. Victor led the way with his rifle slung over his shoulder and a spotlight in hand, while Oni covered the rear. Carter and Lavin, the two young men, were protected in the middle.

"Tracking wild boars' activity trails isn't difficult, but before searching, you need to understand their activity patterns. Wild boars' movement paths are relatively fixed, and their range of activity is limited. Typically, a herd will only move within 8 to 12 square miles, and their territory usually doesn't exceed 10 square kilometers."

"Within this area, the paths often traveled by wild boars are called main trails. These are the routes they take when patrolling their territory, going to water sources, or foraging. If you see an area with long-term trampling marks on the ground, along with wild boar footprints or friction marks on trees by the roadside, and fallen bristles on the ground nearby, then that's where the wild boars frequent, indicating you're on their trail."

"If you're lucky enough to find a pile of feces, congratulations, you've reached the central area of the wild boar herd and have penetrated into their territory. I must say, wild boars have a good sense of public hygiene; they usually defecate in a fixed location in the center of their territory. So if you see an exaggeratedly high pile of feces, there's no need to think twice; it's definitely left by wild boars."

"Only they can stack feces over a meter high, it's simply...remarkable."

For a moment, Victor couldn't find a suitable word to describe the scene. God knows what expression he had when he first saw feces piled up over a meter high.

"Dad! That's enough, you don't need to describe it in such detail!"

Lavin also complained weakly. Could we focus on the important stuff and not keep talking about feces? It's gross!

"We should look for the depression on the mountainside now. Carter, if you're standing in the wilderness and don't know where to start, there are several places you must go, and they're the easiest choices to begin with."

"One is the depression on the mountainside; wild boars often pass through here. Additionally, there are mud pits, swamps—wild boars love rolling in them—and then there are water sources. If you don't know where to start, go to these three types of places, and you'll likely find traces of wild boar activity."

"Lavin's right, and we're heading to the depression right now. Wait...Carter, come over here. Do you see the bristles under that pine tree? I think we don't need to wait until halfway up the mountain."

Hearing Victor's call, Carter hurried over. Under the light, he indeed found several clusters of black bristles near the roadside pine tree, and there were some pieces of bark fallen about 80 centimeters above the ground.

"It seems like a big one. Let's look for footprints around here, it should be nearby!"

As Victor's words fell, Carter saw Oni and the others immediately spread out and search the ground with their flashlights. Following suit, Carter also joined in, choosing a direction not currently attended to by the three men and began to search.

Before long, Carter found some footprints. There were about four rows, and the hoof marks looked somewhat square:

"I found footprints!"

"Well done!"

Upon hearing Carter's discovery, Victor patted Carter's shoulder and bent down to inspect.

"Three males and one female, four boars. One big boar, two small ones. It seems like a family, just like us!"

"How did you figure that out?"

In Carter's eyes, aside from varying sizes, the hoof prints all looked nearly identical. But Victor managed to deduce so much from these tracks, which greatly impressed Carter, prompting him to ask.

"Haha, take a look. First, judge the size of the boars by the size of the prints. These two, with a length of less than 3 centimeters, are left by small pigs weighing less than 50 kilograms, with shorter strides. Then, look at these two, which are about 8 to 9 centimeters long, closer to 100 kilograms; these hoof marks also have a larger span, consistent with the larger boars' strides."

With a slight smile, Victor began to explain. In fact, understanding these tracks wasn't as mysterious or esoteric as it seemed once you understood the rules and logic behind them.

"Additionally, compare these two hoof prints. Notice anything different?"

"They seem... one of them is narrower? It's not as wide and doesn't look as round."

After comparing the two hoof prints pointed out by Victor, Carter tentatively remarked. If you weren't paying attention, they all seemed the same, but after being pointed out, the differences were quite obvious.

"That's right. Boar's hooves are much stronger than sows', so the prints they leave are more rounded at the toe and sink deeper into the ground. The sow's prints, on the other hand, appear relatively elongated."

"Now, look at the direction the nearby grass is leaning. Do you know which way to track?"

"I got it! Southeast!"

After all the explanations, if Carter still didn't know which direction to follow, he'd really be a lost cause. Following the direction the grass leaned, the group moved forward. Along the way, Victor occasionally took out the attracting whistle, blowing it a couple of times, attempting to deceive the naive wild boars.

Whether there were truly no boars nearby or if the boars had become smarter and didn't fall for the trick, after more than half an hour of pursuit, Carter and his group finally found traces of the wild boars.

About 300 meters away, there were indeed several dark shadows moving about. The group hurriedly turned off the flashlight, plunging the surroundings into darkness.

"Your eyes are pretty sharp!"

Following Victor's guidance, Carter, who was crouching and moving quietly on the ground, praised Lavin's eyes after hearing his father's call.

In the darkness, with their side illuminated and the other side dark, being able to accurately spot the black shadows three hundred meters away was quite impressive. It would be a waste not to use such sharp eyes as a sniper!

Faced with Carter's surprised praise, Lavin just smiled shyly. They were about to approach the wild boars; it wasn't the time for chatting.

However, what Carter never expected was that shortly after he praised Lavin for being sniper material, he himself became the target of a sniper.

As Carter and the others quietly approached to about 140 meters from the wild boars, Carter aimed his gun. He slightly pressed the trigger, adjusted his breathing, and then...

"Bang~"

"Bang~"