Chapter 9 - I'm Kilning It!

Day 5:

Morning came in a flash like always though if i had to say it i awoke a bit later than usual, since the underground room i was sleeping in barely had any source of natural light plus the surrounding were eerily quite unlike in the city where the hustle and bustle of people going to work, and soldiers on patrol could be heard.

Once i was awake, i stretched for a bit before bending down to collect up the leaves and cotton i'd used for my makeshift bedding, but as my hand was outstretched they merely disappeared...

'Huh'

Well i mean i did see that i had the auto-collection ability now so maybe that's it?

Deciding the first action was to verify what exactly happened but at the same time already having the excuse of needing to go to my storage to gather up ingredients for my breakfast.

"Whoa!"

Was all i could manage to muster as i gazed out at the surrounding of my storage, again the skill had leveled up, but this was more than i could have expected.

At level one the storage was the size of a gardeners shed with simple shelves on the walls, but now the storage room looked closer to a really small cabin or rustic general store with shelves on the walls, and shelving units also creating isles.

All the items that i had stored before had safely been moved over to this new space, anything that was on a shelf was still on a shelf and same for those i had lain on the ground they also remained on the ground.

Lastly was a new section which looked a bit like a walled sandbox or open faced crate within which were the leaves, and cotton i'd used as bedding though they didn't carry the dirt from the floor along with them so they were exactly like new once again.

"To bad they wont be automatically sorted as well.

Well enough with the new, i quickly sorted out the items into their respective places, before rearranging the items around, so materials were separated from tools, food, and misc

Once everything was done i scooped up the food ingredients and departed.

Dug my way out of my little home, and with wicker basket of ingredients in hand made my way to the surface where breakfast prep was conducted.

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With breakfast over and done with now we can proceed with converting my home into a kiln!

Once again i crawled into the underground room, but this time i pulled log after log out of my storage creating criss-crossing towers of wood from floor to ceiling with just enough room to walk between them, next up was to fill the ground with all manner of dried reeds, leaves, and grasses.

Before getting back to the doorway where I hastily set fire to the grass floor, the small embers hastily spreading their way throughout the room, as the flames danced and licked at the stacks of wood.

Leaving the ever growing inferno behind i left before once again piling up soil and sealing the entryway as tight as possible.

having made my way back above ground the fire was raging below the surface as the exhaust port was billowing smoke, but since to create charcoal first you need to light the wood on fire, but then reduce the oxygen in the room, so I'll need to place a stone or something to partially cover that hole to prevent as much air flow as possible until the fire dies down naturally.

Since everything was now out of my hands, i decided to leave the raging kiln inferno alone and carrying on with my next task.

With my house becoming a Kiln i should dig out a second one in case i need to spend another night out of the city since my current homes walls and floor will soon be coated top to bottom in ash, and soot and while i have hopes for my auto collection skill to clean the room up, i should make a second room either way so i can increase my own efficiency at the same time.

With each movement my wooden shovel dug into the earth but upon lifting it up the soil it held would disappear being auto collected into my storage room, as a result my rate of progress was many times faster now that i didnt need to manually store the soil, or haul it back to the surface to create a pile.

Since this efficiency gain was present my newest underground room was created to be almost twice as big as the last.

'Phew'

taking a break for lunch i wiped the sweat from my brow, having finally stopped enough to take a look at Kiln-1 while there was still visible heat emanating from it there was no smoke at all, and even when i got closer to see what was going on inside i didn't manage to get a look as it was just a solid black hole.

Well it's already been hours, so it should be safe to unblock the entrance and get some airflow back to cool the room down and get in there to take a look at the results.

So with that, the Kilns door was unsealed and with it a blast of heat shot out from within along with a good cloud of black dust which also coated my clothing.

Being content with just doing a light pat down before heading off to maintain the fire nessessary for my lunch cooking.

'Hmmm well since that'll take a while to cool down perhaps i should also make another couple, i might manage to get a good haul of copper or even iron if i sell good amounts of charcoal and pottery in the city.