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Chapter 101 Borist follows the steps and proportions

Borist added the herbs one by one according to the steps and proportions, and then began to stir slowly. A pot of greenish-blue liquid gradually took shape, and bubbles slowly rose from the bottom of the pot.

Carola and Olivia were very curious about their brother's potion-making process.

Because of their short stature, Borist also forbade Olivia and Carola from approaching the cauldron where potions were being brewed. The two little girls could only stack their books high and sit on them to look, but they could only see one or two large, bluish-green bubbles bursting from the cauldron.

Borest calculated the time and felt it was about time, so he extinguished the fire in the crucible and waited for the potion to cool down before giving it to the little black cat.

Borest walked to the window and opened it to let the potion cool down faster, and placed the Night Sky Stone on the table to bask in the moonlight—the book said that if the Night Sky Stone absorbed moonlight, the light it emitted would be even more dazzling.

Borest sat back down in front of the cauldron, took out a long-handled wooden spoon, and continued stirring the potion to cool it down faster.

The evening breeze blew in through the window, diluting the unpleasant bitter smell of the potion and leaving only a pleasant grassy scent, while also making the window creak.

While Borist was stirring the potion, the two sisters soon became restless and began building a castle from the pile of books on the ground.

When Borest saw this, he simply said, "Be careful not to damage the book," and then continued stirring the herbs.

After stirring the medicine, Borest reached out to test its temperature. Once he was sure it wouldn't burn him, he glanced at his two younger sisters.

The sisters are playing with the kitten; it seems they no longer need the medicine that makes animals talk.

Borist walked to the window, intending to pick up the lid of his crucible—his two sisters didn't need it now, but if they remembered it later, they could use it to feed the little black cat the uncontaminated potion.

As he walked to the window, Borest suddenly sensed something strange: the wind had stopped, but why was there still a creaking sound?

Soon, Borest realized that it didn't sound like the window, but rather a bird call—because a black, bird-like thing flew into the room so fast that it startled everyone in the room.

Borest instinctively picked up his wand and cast a protective shield on his two sisters, then launched a weak attack on the blackbird.

When the golden-red magical light struck the black bird, it felt a burning sensation on its head—a small tuft of flame appeared on its head.

The blackbird let out a shriek, louder than its previous cries, and then saw Borist's pot of potion that hadn't been covered yet. The blackbird plunged headfirst into it.

A large, green splash of water erupted from inside the crucible, covering a wide area.

Borist couldn't dodge in time, and the green potion splashed all over his face, with a few drops even dripping into his mouth.

After Borest finished wiping the medicine off his face, the black bird emerged, shaking the medicine off its black feathers. It opened its beak and began to chatter again: "Was it you who took my stone? I finally found such a beautiful stone… No, no! What nonsense am I spouting?! What kind of nonsense is this?! I can't understand what I'm saying?! Ah!!! Good heavens!!!!"

Boris finally saw clearly what kind of bird it was—it was a crow.

Having been taught from childhood that crows are birds of ill omen, Borest raised his wand, but then remembered that what the teachings said might not be true, so he put the wand away and walked toward the crow.

The crow, which had been desperately trying to find its original voice, immediately flew to a point diagonally above Borist and looked down at him when it saw him approaching.

"Hey! Kid!" The crow opened its sharp beak and made a human-like sound that sounded very out of place. "You're the one who brewed this pot of medicine, aren't you? I'll let bygones be bygones that you took the stone I liked, but get my voice back!"

Boris opened his mouth, but before he could utter a single word, a cawing sound escaped his lips. Startled, he quickly covered his mouth and turned to look at his two sisters, who, along with the black cat, were all staring at him with slightly bewildered expressions.

Borest tried to ignore Lu Renkui's suppressed laughter and the system WQBYRZM's loud laughter in his mind, and quickly found the potion book to start looking for the antidote.

While Borist was searching for the antidote, the raven kept cawing and cawing: "Heavens, you actually have to flip through a book to concoct an antidote? I thought you human magicians could memorize things just by glancing at them, but it turns out you can't!"

"Hey! Human! Why did you have to take my Night Sky Stone? Do you know where I flew to find that one-of-a-kind stone? Do you know? Do you know? Do you know——————!"

"You!! Don't!! Know!! —!!! So you took it!! without a second thought!!!"

"Do you know what happened? A mysterious magic circle appeared out of nowhere, right in front of all my brothers and sisters, and all my subordinates! It just took away my most precious stone! I was also branded by a mysterious magic circle, and I have to find that magic circle, otherwise my head will keep burning! And you, on the other hand, got my hair burned as soon as I arrived!"

"Hey! Human, say something! Human, I saw you imitate our call just now and it was pretty accurate. Say it a couple more times and let me hear it."

Olivia and Carola watched as the crow opened its beak and spoke human language. Taking advantage of the crow's inattention, they quietly approached.

Both little girls reached out and touched the crow's feathers.

The crow was startled and cried out indignantly, "Hey, you two rude little girls! Are you trying to pluck my feathers off?! Let me tell you, I've always taken great care of these feathers. If you dare damage them, I'll call all my brothers over to surround you two—Ouch! Hey! Kid, why are you hitting me?!"

Borest was already annoyed by the duet of laughter and cawing in his mind.

Lu Renkui and the system WQBYRZM managed to hold back their laughter, but the crow was completely unrestrained and kept cawing. If it weren't for the barrier set up inside the room, everyone in the castle would have been attracted by the sound, run to Borist's room door, pry open a crack, and see through the crack what was making such a racket.

The crow was tapped, and it mumbled a few more curses before finally landing next to its favorite night sky stone, gently rubbing it with its feathers.

The medicine was ready. Borist first took a sip of water, then scooped up a spoonful and said to the crow in his newly recovered human language, "Drink it."

The crow quickly stretched its head over.

After drinking two doses of the medicine, the crow's cawing returned to its usual loud cawing, and it happily flew around the room.

But Borist saw a small magical symbol on each of the raven's wings—a sign of the pact between the familiar and the summoner.

Then Borest felt a sharp pain on the back of his hand holding the wand. He quickly raised the hand holding the wand and found that the same pattern as the raven's wing had appeared on the back of his hand.

It seemed this raven was his familiar, and it even sounded like a king. Borest thought to himself that he would be doing a disservice to himself for raising a black cat and summoning a raven as a familiar if he didn't go out and fight a god face to face in the future.

"What's this on my wing? Human, do you know? You have the exact same one on the back of your hand! Oh, human, you probably can't understand me now." The crow continued hopping around the night stone while spreading its wings and looking at the two patterns on them that it had never seen before.

"Now that it's resolved, I'll take the stone with me. Don't use magic circles to transfer my things again, understand? Never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway." The crow picked up the night stone and prepared to fly away.

“Wait a minute,” Borist said, “you probably won’t get very far now—you’ve become my familiar.”

Upon hearing this, the crow turned around in alarm—first, it realized that it could still understand what Borest was saying, and second, it realized that Borest could understand what it was saying.

The crow put down the Night Sky Stone, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "Human, is there something wrong with the potion you brewed?"

“My potion is fine.” Borest, unwilling to accept reality, slammed the potion book on his head—he was now annoyed by the sound of the raven. “You are now my familiar.”

But there was nothing he could do but accept the fact that the noisy crow in front of him was his familiar.

"What?!" The crow was stunned for a moment, then remembered what a familiar was and started shouting, "Ah! Is that the ritual you humans use to grab any passing magical beast and make it your servant? You took my stone to trick me into coming here to complete the ritual at close range, didn't you?! I actually fell for your trick!"

"Listen, I didn't know you were my familiar either. After all, the magic circle just turned over a stone that was useless except for being pretty. I thought I couldn't have a familiar, so the magic circle just randomly turned over a stone to comfort me." Borest tried his best to patiently explain to the crow.

"Oh dear, how annoying! Can this troublesome contract be dissolved?" The crow flew impatiently from the table to the windowsill, and then from the windowsill to the bed.

“Based on my understanding of the people in my family, no,” Borist said. “To ensure that their familiars will not betray their masters, they usually make a pact that allows the familiar and the human to share a lifespan, and they specifically choose powerful but short-lived magical beasts as their familiars. Unless the summoner dies, the familiar cannot voluntarily break the contract.”

"Ah! Forced to trade freedom for a longer life?" The crow flapped its wings twice. "Could you die now so I can regain my freedom?"

"Why don't you wait until I've raised my two younger sisters to adulthood? I'll die after I've raised them and give you your freedom, okay?" Borist didn't want to say anything more to the crow at this point; he felt like his head was about to explode from all the noise.

"Haha, you wouldn't do that—what good food do you humans have?" the crow said resignedly. "I have to feed a whole colony; how can you expect us to submit without food?"

Upon hearing this, Olivia quickly handed the bread she had bought at the market to the crow's beak.

"Ah, the little girl's tribute to the Crow King, let me try it first." The Crow King tasted it and found it quite delicious. "Is there anything else good to eat? This is not enough."

Carola heard this and held up the berries in her hand to the Raven King.

After finishing the "offerings," the Crow King felt that following this human was not bad—at least it didn't have to fly out to forage for food sometimes, and there was a forest nearby, so its people would probably like this sunny new place.

“Alright, kid, I agree to become your familiar, but I need you to promise me one thing—you cannot interfere with my activities or those of my bird clan, unless our activities are harmful to you,” the Raven King said, extending a wing as if shaking hands.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Borest said, extending a hand to grasp the wing.