Chereads / Just Rancher trying to Live his Life / Chapter 9 - The Ancient Ruins

Chapter 9 - The Ancient Ruins

Sorry for not posting lately I fell down the stairs and cracked my femur. I walk like a crab to not hurt myself.

I hope you enjoy this.

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Albert had enjoyed life on the ranch he had bought every expansion relatively easily and quickly but his only worries now were what he would explore next. He discovered recipes left and right from a sort of ice cream made with mint mango flavor and even a nice dish he loved eating in the moss blanket. Briar hen and cheese sandwiches are perfect for exploring the various hidden islands around the area and popping its Gordos.

He had a few ideas about where he could go and the easiest to get to was the ancient ruins which also had a new fruit that was not in the other areas known as a phase lemon. He looked at the phase lemon in the slimepedia and licked his lips in anticipation.

Phase Lemon:

About:

A phase lemon comes from a different place and time. They are like an echo, reverberating through the halls of the Ancient Ruins, never staying in the same place for long.

In order to harvest phase lemons, a rancher must pass fruit matter through the phase lemon tree when lemons are present. This process somehow removes the fruit from our reality and phases in a lemon in exchange.

On the Ranch:

Deposit a phase lemon into a garden's depositor and you'll grow a large phase lemon tree of your very own.

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This fruit interested him extremely, how would a phase lemon taste? Could he make phase lemonade? Could he use it to season the chicken? So many questions yet only one solution.

"Gotta find out it seems"-Albert.

He grabbed his vac-pack and headed out for the moss blanket, there when he entered through the tunnel-like entrance he turned to his right rather than the left and saw an opening. He then passed through that opening and climbed up the old wooden stairs, in front of him he saw a large stone door with carvings depicting slimes. As usual, he placed a slime key into the door he obtained after obtaining one of the last upgrades, a spare slime key. The door rotated and then sunk into the ground, showing its contents.

An even larger stone door stood in the middle of an incredibly large field with slime statues surrounding it, many with gemstones in their eyes and a diamond-shaped slot for plorts. He had come prepared though, this door had a need for all the statues near it to have plorts of the slime they represent placed into the slot. Slowly but surely he placed all the plorts into the slots, plorts from tabby slimes, boom slimes, rock slimes, honey slimes, and two more slimes being the phosphor and rad slimes were placed. Each time they were placed in the slot a sound emanated from the Slime gate a sort of singing from slimes but each note was higher than the last.

Soon the inscriptions on the Slime gate glowed before finally the door went down, to Albert an entirely new part of the cookbook he had written was suddenly unlocked. He had been longing for many things before coming here, quantum plorts and phase lemons, delicious new additions to his cooking. He saw many things from tabby slimes to puddle slimes but finally, he found both the things he was looking for, one was a translucent holographic tree that grew a phase lemon when he threw a pogofruit at it. This was found along with a quantum slime that had a slightly dark yellow color, it also occasionally became see-through although it didn't seem to apply to its white glowing eyes.

Having placed both into his vac-pack he left in a hurry, this place had an incredibly large amount of puzzles and mechanisms that opened one door but closed the other, it was a nightmare to the brittle mind of Albert.

Entering the Ranch he did an experiment. He planted the phase lemon into a garden and waited for the fruit to bear. After the fruit appeared he tasted it, it was just liked a regular lemon but it had a stronger taste, it was a lot like a lemon candy flavor. The quantum plorts he owned which were very little, were very much like a bland rice cake, crunchy yet didn't taste good but what happened was that its taste lingered and disappeared while appearing again randomly.

Searching up the quantum slime on the slimepedia he found several things.

Quantum slimes:

Slimeology:

Quantum Slimes appear to have resulted from some sort of event that took place in the Ancient Ruins long ago. At all times, the quantum slime is capable of emitting other possible realities of their being. Called 'ghosts', these other realities can come true, with the quantum slime aligning with the reality of the ghost, effectively teleporting.

Rancher Risks:

Quantum Slimes can be one of the most difficult slimes to manage, given their unique abilities. A rancher needs to learn to detect when quantum slimes are primed to take over the reality of a ghost, and act quickly, such as feeding them or splashing them with fresh water as a temporary measure.

Plortonomics:

Quantum plorts are believed by many to hold the secret to infinite resources. Given the quantum slime's ability to change reality, it's theorized that unlocking the potential of quantum plorts would allow for a technology that converges the realities of other entities into our reality and- well basically we're talking about cloning stuff. Infinite energy, chickens, whatever. Probably no harmful side effects to this at all.

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He had looked at it before but he could see it didn't even mention anything about taste, maybe he was one of the first to try it? Nonetheless, he could not cook much with his new ingredients so he simply made a phase lemonade mixed with some pogofruit juice. The taste was sweet with hints of citrus. The drink almost felt intoxicating and that made him wonder, could he make alcohol in the Ranch? Theoretically, he could but it would take much work, and fortunately, he was experienced in the wine-making industry.

However, that was a plan for another day as he simply drank the concoction he made with glee, looking upon the setting sun that dyed the sky a warm red and a cold purple.

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Thanks to everyone for supporting me but an announcement is to be made.

During the first 10 days of June, it is possible that I may stop making chapters due to my exams being in the way.

Thank you all if you have read this far.