Chapter 120: Now this is how to Explore

Lilly slowly approached the large ferret and placed her hand onto its leg causing the creature to glare down at her for a moment, but just like with all the other beast that Lilly tamed a connection started forming between the two of them. The ferret wasn't nearly as aggressive of a beast as some of the other creatures that Lilly had come across so it didn't immediately try to fight the bond. The only reason it even glared down at Lilly in the first place was because it was worried her children would be in danger.

After a minute or so of Lilly channeling her aura towards the large ferret it began to relax before it eventually lowered its head and started nudging Lilly's hand affectionately. The large ferret then used one of its paws to push Lilly towards its children as if it was asking her to do the same to them. Joshua could tell that the ferret didn't have the same level of intelligence as someone like Tank, but it did show far more intelligence than a lot of the beast they had seen before coming to the prairie. It could easily communicate what it wanted to Lilly within seconds and the clear expressions it portrayed also showed signs of higher intelligence.

Joshua wouldn't be surprised if most beast in the prairie were similar to the ferret in that regard. They did all seem far more organized than any other wild beast that Joshua had come across while exploring. Hell the owl could probably hold an intelligent conversation judging by the quick witted tactics it used to lure the snake out and take it down instantly. The bobcats even seemed fairly smart in the way they went about hunting.

Lilly quickly tamed the three children of the mother ferret and kept them all out of her soul realm for the time being so that she could get to know them. Joshua wouldn't be surprised if she was already naming the ferrets at this point considering how attached she was getting to them within such a short amount of time. Now that things were safe Vince dropped the illusions around him and Joshua so that the ferrets could see them as well. They didn't get aggressive at all since they could probably feel the emotions of Lilly through the bond.

"So what do you think? Is this big girl going to be able to carry us all through the prairie from now on?" Vince asked to get Lilly's attention away from the ferrets for a moment.

"Her name is Momo." Lilly said as she kept petting the smaller ferrets while the now named Momo uncurled herself so that she was crouching a bit to keep her head from hitting the sealing in the cramped room.

"Well can Momo carry us all?" Joshua simply asked as he shook his head at the name that Lilly had given the large creature.

"Momo won't have any problem carrying all of us. She might not stand as tall as Cinder, but her body is much longer. You'll see when we get out of this cramped hole, but for now I have to think of some names for Momo's children." Lilly responded before putting the three smaller ferrets away into her soul realm. The large ferret didn't start panicking since it could still feel the connection between itself and Lilly which was also connected to her children. Instead it started shaking its fur in preparation for going outside of the little cubbyhole.

"What kind of special abilities does the fe…Momo have?" Joshua asked, but had to pause when Lilly glared at him for almost not using Momo's name. He had already seen how irritated she could get whenever he did that in the past so he just got used to her ridiculous naming sense.

"Here have a look." Lilly said as she sent over the information on Momo. She didn't bother sending the information on the smaller ferrets since they would grow up to have the same abilities as the mother along with similar stats. Although she did point out that two of the child ferrets were girls while the other one was a boy.

Joshua quickly started looking through the information on Momo and found out that she was technically a black-footed ferret which explained its fur color scheme. Size wise she could stand up to four stories tall and was closer to seven whenever she reared back on her hind legs. Her body was a good seven stories in length in comparison to her vertical height with her long bushy tail adding another three or so more to that. Her large frame would be more than big enough to carry the entire group, but what really caught Joshua's interest were the skills that the ferret had. He wasn't surprised that the ferret actually had such skills since all of the beast in the prairie seemed to have at least one or two special abilities.

The first ability was a camouflage ability that allowed Momo to change the color of her fur to match her surroundings at any moment. The only area that couldn't change color was her feet, but since they were black in color they were hard to notice, especially at night time. The reason that her feet had to always stay black was because of another ability that the ferret had. It was a more offensive ability to fend off predators that would attempt to attack the ferret and it packed quite a punch.

Momo could channel mana into her paws and infuse it with different elements to empower herself in different ways. If she channeled wind mana into her paws then her overall speed would sky rocket for a short amount of time and any of her slashing attacks with her claw would become far more lethal for instance. If she channeled earth element into her paws then her paws would grow much heavier on impact and it also made it much easier for the ferret to dig through the ground. Such an ability could also be used for blunt force damage in combat. Those were the only examples that the system gave since Momo was most likely only used to using the wind element and the ground element in her current environment.

Lilly's new beast companion was going to be able to easily satisfy what they wanted from her and could possibly even fend off any ambusher that came their way long enough for the group to react. This was far more than what Joshua was expecting. The only better option was to get a giant beast that could soar high in the sky and was large enough to carry all of them, but Joshua didn't think the owl was going to just let itself be tamed.

"Well looks like we've got what we've come for. Let's head back to the group before any surprises can happen." Joshua said as he started heading back out the tunnel with Vince and Lilly following right behind him. Momo came out right after them and her appearance attracted the attention of everyone in their group that was still watching from the other hill. The ferret was honestly rather cute even in Joshua's opinion so he wasn't surprised that the rest of the group seemed to fall in love with it rather quickly as they made their way over.

"So this big guys going to be our ride? At least it'll be a comfortable one with all of his fluffy fur." Adrian said with a grin as he hugged Momo's leg.

"Momo is a girl not a boy and please refer to her by name." Lilly said as she glared at Adrian for a moment before giving everyone else the same look causing a few of the guys to gulp in nervousness while most of the women chuckled at how protective Lilly was being before walking over and petting Momo who had lowered her head.

"Was there only one ferret that you guys could tame?" Aito asked a bit surprised. "At least she seems more than big enough to carry us all through the prairie if needed."

"There were three other ferrets but they were all still kids so they'd be in danger constantly if they just roamed through the prairie." Joshua said with a shrug. He was fairly sure that Lilly was probably saying the same thing to the people gathering around Momo and was already trying to name the three children. "Besides if we traveled with multiple beast it would be easier for us to get accidentally separated during an attack. At least this way we will all be stuck together if things took a turn for the worse."

Lilly then started explaining Momo's abilities to everyone in the group so that they would have an understanding of what she could do when it came to traveling around the area or even when it came to combat. Joshua doubted Lilly would be using Momo for combat purposes very often when she had other beast that were far more threatening in a fight. Even so everyone seemed relieved that Momo was going to be able to protect herself if it came down to it.

"Alright let's take Momo for a ride. It's about time we finally get a move on in this territory exploration." Madalyn said with a smirk as she started climbing up onto Momo's back. Everyone else started following her example while Joshua just leaped up onto one of Momo's shoulders in one jump. The moment Joshua got all the way on to her back Joshua was surprised by how much room there was for everyone to sit. The fur on her back was so fluffy and soft it felt as if he was standing on a bed of cotton. The fur was more than long enough for Joshua to hold onto when Momo got on the move so he made his way up to Momo's neck alongside Lilly.

Eventually Joshua and Lilly both were holding on to the top of Momo's head so that they could get a good view of where they were headed. It would also give Joshua the chance to go on the attack if any beast tried to attack Momo while she was racing through the area. With everyone set up and ready to get on the move Lilly told Momo where to head through their bond and the giant ferret was off to the races. The amount of speed the ferret was able to move at through the tall grass was far faster than any of the creatures Joshua had seen in the prairie so far. It was as if the grass moved out of the way as she rushed through it by the way her body seemed to scurry around at a rapid pace.

That's when Joshua realized that Momo wasn't even using her ability to increase her speed with wind mana. 'Looks like we've struck gold.' Joshua thought to himself as he looked ahead to see more of the prairie.