[ Aurora Snowy Owl ]

The herbs needed to make an Apprentice Grade Fire Element Antidote Potion were actually quite simple.

The ingredients for one potion were about 10 grams of Yellow Thorn, 10 grams of Clover, 5 grams of Aimi Grass, 5 grams of White Snowflake, and 100 milliliters of Spring of Magic.

She already had all of these on hand. They were among the more than a hundred pounds of herbs Lan Qingyou had bought.

Two hours later, the two pots of Mana Potion beside her were ready.

Six more hours passed before the pale-yellow Antidote Potion was finished.

After tossing the other person a potion, Lan Qingyou finally had time to rest.

Lan Qingyou: "How well did it work?"

Li Huai: "The poison's gone. I just used a Healing Potion, but I still need to rest for a while."

Lan Qingyou: "That's good."

Though this was a magical world, not all injuries were the same.

Healing Potions could restore health and instantly heal external wounds, but they couldn't immediately replace lost blood or mend the damage caused by a Mental Attack.

Those things had to be left to the body to recover from naturally.

Aah—

Lan Qingyou yawned. Now that she'd gotten feedback from the user, she planned to take a bath and go to bed.

"Chirp... chirp..."

Just as Lan Qingyou came out after her bath, she heard a chick-like sound coming from inside the house.

Only then did she remember the little chick she'd rescued earlier.

She floated over and saw it flapping about on a towel.

After a day and a night of rest, and treatment with two Healing Potions, the little chick had fully recovered. Its fluffy gray-white down made it look just like a ball of Steel Wool.

"Oh, you're alive and well again."

When the little chick saw Lan Qingyou approach, it stared at her blankly for a moment, then got up from the towel and tottered toward her.

Lan Qingyou reached out, picked it up, and pressed it against the Small Screen.

The Small Screen had been able to identify the Volcano Worm's corpse earlier. Could it identify this little chick too?

If it could, she naturally wanted to find out what kind of magical creature it was.

She didn't want to raise an ungrateful beast that might bite her later.

"Chirp..."

The little chick squirmed against the Small Screen as Fate held it down.

Lan Qingyou ignored its protests.

[Species Talent: Aurora (B)]

[Skill: Not Awakened]

[Description: Aurora Snowy Owl, a nocturnal magical creature that flies extremely fast. It can survive anywhere in the world and is a highly adaptable raptor of the night sky. Unfortunately, this is only an Aurora Snowy Owl chick, and it will be several more months before it reaches adulthood.]

Even a Snowy Owl had a better talent than she did?

Looking at the little chick's appraisal, Lan Qingyou suddenly felt the world's malice.

"I didn't expect you to have B-Rank talent, you little ball of Steel Wool. Come to think of it, 'snowy owl' just means owl, doesn't it?"

Lan Qingyou thought back to a movie she'd watched once. There had been an owl in it called Hedwig.

But no matter how she looked at this ball of Steel Wool, she couldn't connect it to that owl with its white and gray feathers.

Maybe it was because this one was still young.

Besides, there didn't seem to be any way to compare the magical creatures of the Karim Continent with the owls of Blue Star.

Now Lan Qingyou was in a bit of a bind.

She'd only wanted something to test medicine on, but she'd ended up saving a "raptor of the night sky."

Should she throw it away?

She began to seriously consider the question.

After all, to her, this magical creature was an unpredictable factor.

It was impossible to say what it would be like when it grew up, even if it seemed harmless as a chick.

"Chirp..."

At some point, the Aurora Snowy Owl had flipped itself over while pinned against the Small Screen. It rubbed its face against the base of Lan Qingyou's thumb.

Oh, so its head had turned a hundred and eighty degrees.

"Hmph! Don't think acting cute will make me let my guard down."

Lan Qingyou snorted, then opened her friends list and found Gu Xiaobei.

Lan Qingyou: "I need a plate of raw wolf meat strips."

Gu Xiaobei: "Didn't you just have some?"

Lan Qingyou: "I'm feeding a little animal."

Gu Xiaobei: "Oh."

Before long, Gu Xiaobei sent over a plate with about half a pound of wolf meat strips.

Since she'd heard they were for a little animal, Gu Xiaobei had cut the meat fairly fine.

Lan Qingyou put the Snowy Owl on the plate and let it eat by itself.

When the Little Snow Owl saw the huge plate of food, it chirped at Lan Qingyou twice, then fell silent.

"Hey! Do I have to feed you too?"

Seeing the Little Snow Owl stare at her with a wise-looking expression, Lan Qingyou somehow produced a pair of wooden Chopsticks. They'd been peeled and still held a little moisture. She used them to feed the bird strips of meat, one by one.

Don't get the wrong idea. Lan Qingyou had made these Chopsticks to wipe her own mouth.

It just so happened that they came in handy now.

All right, I can't keep this up.

Actually, Lan Qingyou had been planning to dig up some Earthworms. She was very good at raising chickens, after all.

She'd raised one when she was little. It had cost five yuan, and she'd bought it at the school gate—the kind of little chick with red and green feathers.

But then it grew up, and it died.

Still, once she learned this free-range chicken was a Flying Owl, there had been a moment when she didn't want to raise it.

But then she thought about how it could fly. If it grew up and carried her around while she was trying to lose weight, wouldn't that make things more convenient?

So, with that in mind, she decided to raise it for a while and see how it went.

It was only a few months, anyway.

She believed that whether it was a magical creature or an ordinary animal, the chance of it turning out ungrateful was much lower than with a human.

And if she really did end up with one, she could only give it to Gu Xiaobei to cook.

Well, the meat strips were too fine. The Little Snow Owl could swallow a whole chopstick's worth in one bite.

Lan Qingyou had no choice but to feed it one chopstickful at a time.

Next time, she should probably get meat slices instead.

While feeding the Little Snow Owl, Lan Qingyou searched the Trading Post to see if she could find a book called Monster Studies.

Rather than sit there imagining all sorts of things, it was better to learn from the knowledge of the locals.

But she searched everywhere and couldn't find it.

In the end, Lan Qingyou could only post a trade offer.

She put up an offer to exchange 10 bottles of +50 Mana Potion for Monster Studies. By then, the Little Snow Owl had polished off the entire plate of meat.

"Hey, you're so small, but you can really pack it away. You ate the whole half-pound."

Lan Qingyou chuckled, unaware of how much Snowy Owls could eat.

Then she got up, ready to go upstairs to bed.

"Chirp, chirp..."

When Lan Qingyou started to leave, the Little Snow Owl kept calling. It even grabbed her finger with its beak.

Its little legs flapped nonstop, as though it were trying to jump onto Lan Qingyou's hand.

"Hmm, maybe it wants to stay with me?"

Not knowing much Snowy Owl, Lan Qingyou made a guess and held out her hand for it to hop onto.

Then she took the towel that had been serving as the Little Snow Owl's bedding and went upstairs.

She spread it out for the bird on the bookshelf, and that became its nest.