Spotting what could have once been called a fluffy creature, Walker knew that he was looking at an oddity of mixed mana. He would have said that the earth mana and the wind mana would make sand, but these monsters seemed to channel the manas and keep their affinities separate in some way. An unusual way that might come from something within the environment.

’Earth shedding ferret / wind stepping ferret

This monster is known for its dual abilities. While it is uniquely in one form during the colder season, it sheds its fur and condenses earth on its body during other seasons. This allows for it to or partially dormant entirely altering the affinity that it utilizes. This also causes a change in temperament and hunger.

When they begin to shed the caked on earth that they use to assist them when burrowing through the earth, they will expose their fur which is extremely sensitive to wind. This allows their bodies to awaken their wind affinity and the ferrets to move through the air just as they tunnel through the ground in their earth form.

They were an ancient monster that often needed to live on the borders of various ancient monster territories due to their smaller size. This pushed them to evolve in to a being that could forcefully cause one of their affinities to go dormant and keep themselves hidden in certain territories.

They also would be able to slumber for hundreds of years within their earth shell allowing them to emerge when they would be able to gain the right amount of nutrition they need and the manas that they need. It also allowed them to entirely avoid ancient monsters that could consume their entire pack.

They are not often violent unless they are excessively hungry. This is most likely because they need nutrition to fuel their wind awakening so that they do not perish. This causes them to be territorial around food.

They prefer to eat fruits and herbs when they can, this is because they can not stomach meats in the same ways as other monsters. But they are still able to consume it to a small degree.

They are often deterred by more powerful...’

Walker looked at Midnight while they saw one of the ferrets emerge from the ground and start to break off parts of a dense earth shell exposing the dusty fur. Slowly, the ferret shook its body and revealed the soft and delicate looking brown furs before stepping in to the air and walking right up to a tree to start eating leaves like it had never seen food before.

"It seems that they were sleeping in the ground to hide from ancient monsters. Then the world changed and they couldn’t wake up. Mana got better so they took that as a sign that it was time to wake up. They just happened to be here under the demi-human farms that grow cocoa beans that make chocolate, the trees that harvest emerald apples, and those small bushes that have gooseberries."

The terrified look on Midnight’s face proved that she was horrified by the risks that the plants were under. If they were all eaten and their ferrets got to other farms, she might not have her favorite snacks! That would be an endless tragedy that could not be one allowed to occur!

"I want to round them up. They fear monsters with stronger mana than what they have. So channel earth mana stronger than theirs, and we can guide them toward us. I will channel stronger wind mana and they won’t want to walk too high in to the air."

With Midnight and Walker, they could both cover one of the two affinities these monsters had. Therefore, they would avoid them using either one to flee from where they were now. It would also confuse them and help keep them grouped together.

"I can sense at least twenty of them, but it feels like another eight or ten will come from the ground soon. There are spots with denser earth mana because they are crawling up from the underground. So if we wait a little bit, we will have them all."

While it felt like this was a small number, these monsters were feverishly hungry. The way that they rapidly ate proved that they needed a lot of food to properly handle the effects of their unique dual affinity and changes as they awaken or bring one of their major traits dormant.

The two watched a few more appear while Midnight’s stress grew seeing that some more plants were being eaten. However, she also knew that Walker would have the natural mana skills to help these plants recover. Not that she wished to need them to recover, this was still a tragedy even if it was on a smaller scale.

But the farm was massive and seeing that most of it had already been consumed hurt. This risk of an ancient monster sleeping deep in the ground and emerging was something that they had mostly seen in the untouched or more wild areas. Not directly underneath a farm that had been grown and used for years.

This brought up the question of checking other farms and cities as a whole. It would only take one strange coincidence to discover that a massive monster or dangerous ruin was beneath a city. That potential didn’t seem small either with what they were finding now too.

Midnight snuck around, she could see that even her movements at a distance caused the ferrets to move slightly. Her fur was so sensitive that even the tiniest movements in the wind caused them to flinch. But they also could tell that she was moving around and away from them. They knew that a predator was not moving toward them so they did not flee.

Being that sensitive was why they were able to survive. But since they had shed their earth affinity and exposed themselves to awakening their wind affinity, Midnight did not see them react to her footsteps. It was an intriguing loss and gain format for them as a race.

Furthermore, she started to gather heart mana and let her strength radiate around her, and most of the ferrets didn’t react proving that they had lost some senses related to their earth affinity as it had gone dormant.

When she started to approach though, they began to stir.

Until Walker locked down control of the wind mana and they began to panic.

This caused the group of ferrets to speed through the air between Midnight and Walker, tiring themselves out. But their erratic actions and the speed they moved proved why the guards of the farmlands here struggled. They were not trained to the level to handle how quickly these ferrets moved through the air. But a few of them did grow brave and struck out at Midnight and Walker here and there.

The attacks were too weak to harm them, but their clothes were easily damaged proving the guards who might have been attacked needed to replace some of their armor. It would get expensive quickly so having specialized people to handle this problem would both help the farm as the primary goal, and ensure that the larger number of guards who would be needed for this otherwise would not lose a lot of their gear.

The commotion alerted guards to rush toward them thinking that Midnight and Walker were causing a fight. They wished to assist only to discover that Walker made an ice bubble and was keeping it floating in the air. Inside were the ferrets they had been worried about.

"You will need to find a place for these little guys to live. They need vegetation to consume and they will most likely fit right in to the natural environment here. They won’t kill off entire areas as long as they aren’t constantly being forced to change their forms or go dormant for long periods of time."

"They ate everything here because they had been slumbering for hundreds of years as a way to wait for better conditions. If you look closely, all that fur is just for show, they are skin and bones." Walker saw a few guards change to softer expressions. They understood that without food anyone would be voracious. Their people focused on farming so that no one would ever go hungry.

"We will find them a forest to live in!" Midnight made a promise surprising Walker before he realized that she had also used a single hand to channel ice and wind mana and move the bubble with her while she glared at him.

"And I will use some magic to help the earth and plants here." He sighed, Midnight’s growth was showing well and he needed to hold up his side of this. Keeping the snacks coming was apparently his job too.

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