FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife-Chapter 36: Charcoal kiln

"Fun part?" Selia asked, cutely leaning her head over her shoulder while giving me a look full of doubt. "What’s so fun about it?" she asked as she watched me pull out a handy piece of wood before I started to tap it against the sides of the hole.

"First, I need to make sure this entire thing is as solid as we can get it to be."

There was no way for me to fully prevent the air from getting through the ground and into the kiln. But that was never my purpose.

It wasn’t a science experiment, but a field test. And with how people used this kind of method since primitive times, I didn’t need this hole to be perfect—good enough would do.

That’s why I continued to press this handy piece of wood against the sides of the hole, evening out and somewhat compacting the surface. Then, after repeating the same step for the hole’s bottom, I finally laid that piece of wood down before moving to the next, likely most important step of the whole process.

"Airways!" I called out with fake enthusiasm as I then proceeded to dig out, by hand or with the help of a random, sharp piece of wood, three shafts that reached all the way to the bottom of the hole, while separated from it by an inch-thick wall of dirt save for the very bottom, where the shafts connected to the actual hole.

"Now, I’m going to arrange the wood as tightly as I can," I provided as a short commentary of what I was doing while actively doing it.

And this time, there was an actual method to what I was doing.

Rather than stacking the wood up, leaving the place full of gaps and openings, I started by arranging each piece of wood in a small circle, pressing the chopped pieces as tightly against the sides of the hole as I could.

Only once the bottom circle was completed did I put a single block up upon the second layer before repeating the whole process from the very beginning.

One by one, I added one layer after the next, stacking the wood higher and higher all the way up to the point where only two tenths of the wood we bought remained.

Then, rather than building the stack even higher, I started to use the smaller chops of wood to fill the insides of the ring, decreasing the empty space in the middle.

With the several layers of wooden circles in place, the entire process turned into a mix of jenga, lego, and puzzle, with how I tried to fit the pieces as tightly as possible.

’I know there’s no need to try to be as precise as I’m trying to be, but...’

I pressed my lips together.

While not exactly a victim of actual OCD, my inner aesthetic sense demanded I put in this extra effort just to make everything look as neat as possible.

’Sure, it might be all just primitive handiwork, but...’

Knowing what I was about to think, I shook my head and focused back on the task.

It was merely my superstition that added effort increased the likelihood of the experiment succeeding. A superstition, as its name suggested, based on absolutely no scientific proof. A superstition that made me work even harder than I needed to for no tangible benefit.

But wasn’t this how all superstitions should be?

"Hmm..." Still hanging around, and splitting her time between watching me work and monitoring our surroundings, Selia hummed under her nose. "I really can’t see how it’s fun at all," she muttered, while making sure to stand far enough away not to step on the ground in a way that could threaten my hole to collapse.

"That’s because you are only watching, rather than actively doing it yourself," I laughed in response, pretending not to care about a whole bunch of splinters that I’d earned after manhandling rough pieces of wood directly with my unprotected hands.

’Fun, isn’t it?’ I thought as half a dozen of the splinter‑born wounds stung a little harder than usual.

Thankfully, with the hole now almost fully filled up with wood with only a small, empty circle in the middle, I could finally move to the next part of the process.

"Now, we arrange for the initial fire," I continued to explain away as I grabbed a bunch of sticks and splinters from the bottom of my backpack before mixing them with a bunch of dried leaves I’d scooped directly from the undergrowth all around the hole.

Then, layer after layer, I poured a bit of dry shards of wood, dry plant matter, dry wood, dry leaves...

In the end, I ended up with a nice-looking cake of neatly arranged circles of wood with an uneven, makeshift fire padding in the middle.

"What’s next?" Selia asked, easily noticing I was about to move to the next part of the process before I could even open my mouth to provide a commentary.

"Now, we create a primary seal," I explained as I stepped away from the hole and picked up the shovel again, only to start covering the whole thing with the very same dirt I’d excavated earlier.

Then, only once the very middle of the whole thing was left uncovered, I did the very same thing that I’d started with—and used the bottom of the shovel to smack the loose dirt together, turning the earthen cap from airy mush into a somewhat solid cover.

"And now?" Selia continued, now hanging on a nearby hill while dangling her feet over the hill’s short edge.

"Now, I’m going to need your help," I admitted as I stepped away and pointed at the very middle of the now mostly buried hole, right where rather than solid blocks of wood, I’d poured in the fire padding. "Could you light it up for me, please?"

Hearing it, Selia perked up.

She then jumped down from where she sat and approached the now sealed hole and looked at the filled-up middle of it. Her eyes then jumped to the openings of the three air shafts I’d made before landing directly on my face.

"That’s it?" she asked while raising her eyebrow in doubt.

"Yeah, that’s it," I nodded my head before shaking it as I stepped back. "Didn’t I tell you? It’s so simple, it’s an actual wonder no one else figured out before today."