14 A Way to Pass the Time

Life in the Ranch is... Boring to say the least

Albert had just finished using the Tangle trait to fertilize the plants and it was just plain boring after a while, adventure was only fun in places you didn't discover yet. It was never fun if it was just in a place you went to daily.

What about obtaining new skills? Fishing was impossible, no fish lived in the slime sea. Maybe knitting? But he had already gotten used to just placing cotton plorts or silk into the knitting machine in the lab.

What he could do though was botany. One of the most simple yet hard-to-do hobbies, it was one he had for most of his life, especially when he traveled. Back then he would bring a flower or cactus in his backpack that was clear on the outside for the sun to go in.

The tangle vines were easy to grow but he wanted more, so he went and tried to study the fire flowers.

After teleporting to Ash Island he went to one of the patches of flowers and placed a drop of water on it, to his surprise the water sizzled on one of the petals and evaporated, clearly showing how these flowers packed some heat. The scent of these flowers though? It smelled a bit like an incredibly spicy but sweet dish. It didn't have a flowery scent but an interesting 'spicy' scent that tickled his nose.

To record some experiments he made a journal with a few items he bought from Mochi, most of those things including paper and leather. He heated a knife and maintained its temperature with a little bit of fire, He then carved a small design on the book. This small design was a small blooming lily, this showed a little about how the book was meant for botany.

He then made the first page and titled it 'The Flora of the Far, Far Range'

The first entry he made was of the Fire Flower.

The Fire Flower

-----

Appearance: The Fire Flower has an interesting appearance, it differs a fair bit more than regular flowers, its appearance is that of a windflower with its five-round petals with little pointy ends. It has a rather small stem ranging from 5 to 7 cm at its peak.

Properties: Like most Flora of the Far, Far Range it has a special property and that is its extreme resistance to heat, which it also emits in large quantities. The flower however does not have a pollinator to help it reproduce so it reproduces like a mushroom by releasing its spores into the air at random intervals. Its sap is very intoxicating and can be fermented into an alcoholic-like substance.

Locations: Ash Island

Domestication: (blank)

-----

He was happy with what he wrote so far but he hadn't domesticated it nor had he domesticated any plant for the simple fact that he didn't have anything like a seed. The fire flower reproduced like a mushroom but those spores were very hard to get and there was no guarantee that the flowers would grow on his land so he came up with an idea. He would remove a silo in the grotto and add an incinerator with an ashtray for the flowers to grow.

He realized his plan fairly quickly but realized there was a huge blessing. These flowers required no sunlight nor did they need any water. It needed heat, it literally ate heat in a form of Thermosynthesis.

He then studied the flowers in domestication for a while until his drones needed watering again. But as he watched, one of the flowers started glowing warmly, then more and more flowers glowed warmly and started to emit heat. When plants photosynthesize they take in carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen. These did the same thing but released more oxygen into the air than normal and used heat instead of carbon dioxide. He could now see why the flowers were named fire flowers as the air around the flowers became so hot it started to combust into flames.

But the flames were just at the bare minimum and produced a nice warm heat that permeated around the room, unless you touched one of the flames directly, it wasn't hot at all.

The Grotto had been transformed from a damp and cold cave into a warm, lit-up cavern.

Standing in the middle of the Lit up cavern he called Ogden to come by and enter the Grotto.

"Hey, Bud what did you- Oh great god"-Ogden

The little flames dancing in the air like fireflies were stunning.

"Pretty cool Huh?"-Albert

"How did you do this Albert? How?"-Ogden

"Look over there"-Albert

After pointing to the Fireflowers Ogden's Jaw Dropped as Albert snickered in response to Ogden's reaction.

"You domesticated FIRE FLOWERS?!"-Ogden

"Yup, not that hard really"-Albert

"Albert you really are a miracle worker"-Ogden

"What do you mean?"-Albert

"Fire Flowers have never been domesticated before due to their nature of not needing water or sunlight, but who knew that all they needed was Heat!"-Ogden

"Thinking of domesticating those cotton flowers from the Wilds, though I think that our spot behind the Ranch house will be covered in flowers then next time you pass by"-Albert

"Well I bet you would, I guess a nickname for you should be 'Little Green thumb', it would be quite accurate wouldn't you think!"-Ogden

"Sounds quite catchy."-Albert

As Ogden then left for his retreat in the wilds, the fire flowers started to bloom, releasing their spores all over the place and making a few fire flower sprouts start to take their roots on the ceiling. Essentially creating ceiling lights for the room.

The next goal for him? Document all Flora in the Far, Far Range and also document all details about fauna and slimes. Pretty much just to research these things.

Maybe he should start messing with the Beatrix From that alternate timeline.

.

.

.

Alright so I'm going to categorize this novel as slice of life since at this point the Mc is just having fun with others.

Ps an idea for where he is can be found in the previous chapter. He isn't at surface level and there are some interesting phenomena in the world of One piece

Votes are the Below:

Hole in the sea

Underwater island

Sky island

Resting point

Choose your Pick!