The Indigo Quarry

Silence.

That was the one thing that permeated the air around the ranch. The slimes were quiet, peacefully sleeping, the wind serenely flowing through the air. But the home on the ranch was with its lights open, glaring in the night. The home's resident in his clothes, scribbling sounds embracing the air, as he wrote in a journal of his days at the Ranch, it was something he had been doing from the first week he stayed here. It served as a reminder of all that he'd done, being on the ranch made him somewhat forgetful, he couldn't remember all the tastes of the recipes he wrote in the book.

But he knew that with the delicious old foods he had both eaten and preserved, new tastes awaited him in a place so close yet so far, but not for long.

He picked his slimepedia and opened it to the page he sought. The Indigo Quarry.

The Indigo Quarry:

The Indigo Quarry is a winding network of caves and cliffs, striated with deep purple hills from the rare minerals found within it. It was once the site of a mining project but went bust after the discovery that the rare ores it produces quickly break down in the atmospheres other than that of the Far, Far Range.

It was later discovered that the means to harness these metals was via rock slime plorts. Somehow, rock slime plorts preserve the minerals within, a process that eludes even the most prestigious slime scientists.

The Indigo Quarry is a natural home for rock slimes and the more elusive rad slime, and its naturally mineral-rich soil make it a great place to harvest most wild veggies.

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This was a place he wished to go, not for its bountiful profits that he could obtain from the Slimes that populated it, not for the adventure that comes with its exploration, but rather the states of its plants, its plorts, its fruits, and all of its various things to see.

Slime key, that was the one thing he needed but with all these obstacles in front of him he had one route to go through, this one route risked many dangers yet also high reward.

To go there he needed to pop the honey slime Gordo in the moss blanket and the Hunter Gordo at the end of the feral path, a gigantic island neighboring the moss blanket with towering mushrooms growing from the ground and various feral hunter largos out for his blood, hence the name 'the feral path' of course this meant he would obtain two slime keys and of course why would he need two slime keys? Well for the same reason as before, to find new things he would add to his palette. To enter the ancient ruins and feast upon its fruits.

But that was a plan for another day and another time. Now the time was nigh to enter the moss blanket and obtain the slime keys, in the past days his profits from the honey slimes allowed him to obtain a fully upgraded vacpack and a maxed-out energy store, as well as a jetpack.

Putting 25 mint mangoes in his vacpack and 4 roostro, 28 hens, and 14 stony hens. This was the exact amount to pop both Gordos and with a drive to make new food he made his way across the Far, Far Range and into the moss blanket.

Entering the Moss Blanket he made sure to keep quiet and listen out as he went into the forest and went through a different path from last time, lest he wakes up the feral pink largos and risk getting swamped by the slimes around him.

The slimes in the moss blanket had grown quite fond of him, a little too fond of him. This led to him getting swarmed by the little ones every time he went in during the day.

He went past the honey perch and used his jetpack to float up a small ledge, and when he finally stepped on the elevated ground he saw his target, the large honey Gordo, grabbing his vacpack he took out the mint mangoes and threw them into the Gordo's mouth, throwing the food at the Gordo's wasn't nearly as effective as it was fun. It was quite hilarious indeed, but after throwing in the 25 mint mangoes it widened its eyes as it popped and suddenly became a large mass of honey slimes and a slime key along with some crates but he had no use for those. Thinking about it he realized he hadn't tried a briar hen, maybe for another day?

Nonetheless, after getting buried under the mound of honey slimes he grabbed the lime key and put it in a pocket in the vacpack reserved for such large things.

But continuing on the path he saw little pairs of yellow eyes staring at him from a large island disconnected from the rest of the Moss Blanket. They looked like little fireflies, little fireflies of death are what they were. Those big eyes were those of a hunter largo's and these fine gentlemen will turn off their invisibility and immediately try to chomp his head off.

This was from experience, an experience that he was gaining at the moment. But there was a way to keep them off of him, this was known as the pulse wave.

" Stay away you overgrown cats!"-Albert

Hilariously he was running like a madman sending various family-friendly curses at the Largos. However, he saw his goal in the end, the Hunter Gordo who was stuck to the cap of a mushroom. Using pulse waves to push away the Hunter Largos he fed the Hunter Gordo every single hen as he watched the Gordo widen its eyes before popping and creating a mound of hunter slimes which he abruptly put in his vacpack as fast as he could before nabbing the slime key and running fast towards the exit of the feral path before realizing.

"Holy Crap I've run out of energy!"-Albert

Hiding in a sort of shelter made of roots he waited till he couldn't hear the bouncing of any Largos so he silently threw a pebble at the edge of the island as he looked and saw the Largos gathering there. So with the fastest sprint he could do, he made a run for the bridge before jumping off and using his jetpack and momentum he flew to the rest of the moss blanket before heaving a sigh of relief.

After all that jazz he stood in front of the door that led to the Indigo quarry before placing the key in the slot, as he saw the door go down he imagined all the food he could make of the indigo quarry's ingredients but there he would find something strange. He jumped off the ledge that led to an open area filled with various things and saw a strange heart-shaped beet and a weird-looking onion. These were the Heart beets and odd onion.

Looking around before entering a cave he saw nothing of interest other than the fact he saw no new slime which he guessed he would see later. With his eyes, he saw a Rock Gordo which he just ignored before finding both the map information of the Indigo Quarry and another tunnel that led him to find another strange vegetable, the Oca Oca. He knew however that these were the only plants and food that the Indigo quarry would give to him so he headed back out of the Indigo Quarry and went back home.

Opening his kitchen he decided to have a simple vegetable soup for dinner with leftover Mint mango honey pie as dessert. Washing the Heart beets, odd onion, and Oca Ocas he found, he readied his knife and cut off the ends of the heart beets while cutting them into pieces, then placing them into the freezer for a while until he finished cutting the rest of the veggies and heating the water. The odd onion was quite odd as the name suggests with blue leaves sprouting from the top and a swirly pattern on the sides.

Cutting it open revealed a spiral pattern rather than layers upon layers like a regular onion but after dicing it and placing it to the side he could see it had a sort of blue hue. The Oca Oca was a sort of bundle of the potatoes connected at the top with orange-red leaves at the top. Cutting it into large Chunks he could smell an almost starchy, yet sweet smell emanating from it.

When the water had finally heated up in the pot he prepared the beats and Oca Ocas and placed them in. The odd onion went in after being caramelized on a pan.

He was a bit bored of the boring vegetables lately but the meat wasn't so common in his diet on the Ranch. But he had cut up some briar hen the day before to keep in the freezer. It was a good idea after all. Cutting the Briar hen into chunks he tossed it on the pan while the Vegetable stew finished.

Placing the vegetable stew first, he then placed the Briar Hen on the and tasting was oh so great. It had a sort of wild flavor to it and the vegetable stew gave it a party of flavors, sweet, savory, salty, and the Oca Oca chunks tasted a lot like a mash between sweet potato and yam.

In the end, he had a hearty meal and after digesting his food a little he ate the pie, it taste like both a jungle and a flower field, two wildly different yet contrasting flavors.

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Do you guys want more cooking with Albert? If yes please let me know, it is quite entertaining to write a cooking scene on a book.