Cain let the fleet go on their way once he was finished with his questions, and they made no attempt to attack the Wave Rider vessels, a fact that wasn't missed by the other Captains in the area.

"Things are getting stranger and stranger, but if they really do blame the Gnomes for killing off their leaders, it does at least make a little sense. I've also noticed that the leaders don't tell their underlings anything but what they need to do next, so it might also explain why we haven't been able to find anything out from the attackers. They didn't know anything for us to learn from them, other than their orders." One of the other Captains suggested when Cain returned and transformed back into his Wave Rider form, nearly dropping Cyrene on the ground before she could tighten her grip.

"So all we can do is wait for a big boss to answer?" Nila asked, not looking forward to a long period of nothing to do.

"For now anyhow. If they don't answer us we can make new plans. We just don't have enough information to really do much at the moment." Cain's analysis wasn't popular, but the others all agreed he was probably right, and that making new plans without information would just cause more problems.

Without anything else to do, they settled in to do what the Wave Riders do best. Tell stories and play cards. The Elves had a whole set of their own games developed to kill time at sea since the business of a Pirate often involved a lot of waiting for the right opportunity, so there was never a point when you were sick of every game they had devised.

In the hills of the Western Continent, Chieftain Schmidt had run into a series of dead ends while trying to see the big boss. He wasn't holding court or taking visitors, and the Frost Giants said that the next steps in the efforts to capture the Gnomish criminals had been decided.

​ Schmidt had promised to be back in a week, so he didn't have long to wait, but he did manage to get a message sent to the Big Boss that informed him of the Ancient and the attack on the Demons, as well as the situation with the Dragons.

Most of that was information that Drakon already had, but knowing that the Ancient was here on the Western Continent was newsworthy.

Those creatures were dangerous and always had nefarious intentions. The only redeeming quality they had in Drakon's eyes was honesty, at least enough of it that they would happily tell you of the Horrors they had planned.magic

The giant decided that he would need to change his plans if the raids had attracted the attention of the Ancients and a Demon King. No longer would they go searching for Gnomes in small groups, they would take over the cities of the Northern Continent one at a time, making a Giant the Guardian of every city they captured until they controlled everything and all the Gnomes were found.

The Wave Riders were only upset about the attacks on ports, and the Dragons only controlled a small section of the continent, so if he went further around the shoreline and took one city before moving inland where there was more snow it shouldn't bother the annoying ones.

"Tell Schmidt and all the Chieftains to gather here in two weeks. We will be starting the new plan." Drakon told his Youkai assistant, a small Snow Girl named Yuki who took care of all messages on his behalf.

What mighty Frost Giant could be bothered to send hundreds of messages anyhow? He would smash anyone who complained about him working with the Youkai.

Yuki didn't much care for humans, or really anyone who wasn't of the ice element, and only agreed to the position so she could keep the Giants away from her people's island, and the desert castle with the Tengu that they traded with.She knew there were Gnomes there, but they had nothing to do with the ones from the other continents, so she didn't bother to mention any of that to the big idiots, as she called the giants.

For Cain, the next few days were relaxing ones, spent waiting around and swimming in the ocean. He even found ample time to work on the next section of his [Spell Crafting]. He was almost finished with the item enchanting section now and had advanced his efforts to attempting to imbue specific spells and abilities into items so that classes that couldn't use that specific ability could activate them.

It wasn't as easy as it seemed, and his first attempts all created class-locked items. They were still very good, but the idea was to let others use abilities well outside their specialty.

There was a chance that this wasn't possible anymore, with the influence of the System, but Cain wouldn't be able to know for sure until he had perfected the technique.

He was mostly working on defensive spells that would be useful to anyone who used the armor he was experimenting on, but he had made a few Wind Magic swords for the shamans among the crews.

The enchantment made the items Ancient Quality to match the spell he imbued and were regarded as heirloom Quality items by the shamans, a greatly appreciated gift from Cain, despite him viewing them as a failure.

The spells were both more powerful and more efficient than the Lesser versions that most shamans used, and would make the wielder a welcome addition to any of the Wave Rider vessels. Water Magic has more attack variations, but their primary duty was to move the ship, so Wind was more useful in their daily life, making it a priority for the Shamans, whose main duty was the movement of the ship.

Right on schedule, Schmidt arrived back at his home one week after he left and immediately sent out a scout to bring the Ancient back to the city so he could assure him that plans had changed and there would be no more raids in the Demons.

The guards were not in a good mood by the time they found Cain. They had passed by twice but didn't see the Ancient, so finally, they lowered their egos enough to ask the elves if they had seen him.

"You, little blue snack. Did you see an ancient? The size of an Orc with wings and Tentacles?" The scout navigating their ship yelled at the Wave Rider flotilla.

"Of course we did, he's right here with us," Nila yelled back, pointing at Cain.

"No, stupid Elf. Bigger, with Tentacles." The giant shouted.

"I am telling you, that's him. He transformed so he could fit in the hammock to sleep." Nila tried to explain."Stupid blue thing, I know what an Elf looks like." The giant scoffed, getting annoyed.

The commotion had awoken Cain from his nap, so he stood up and changed into his smaller Ancient form.

"Like this? I am the Ancient Cain. Did you have a message for me?" Cain asked, and the giants huddled together to decide whether this was really him.

The consensus was that an Ancient had no reason to lie to them, so it must be him and he was previously in disguise.

"The Hill Giant Chieftain Schmidt is back and wants to talk to you." They called over, then nodded to themselves and left, their orders to alert Cain fulfilled.

Nobody told them that Cain could change shapes, how were they expected to have found him when he looked like one of the Blue Elves? This whole mission must have been one big prank at their expense.

The scouts thought they might have been picked for this job because they lost favor with the new chief, making him send them on this stupid search for an Ancient that looked like an Elf without telling them about it. But they did find him, so the boss should be happy when they returned.

Cain shifted to a ten-meter tall version of himself and flew over, but this time the scouts saw him change sizes, so they weren't confused about who he was and led him straight to the boss.

"Ancient Cain. I have good news. The Big Boss made a new plan and there won't be any more attacks on the Demons or Dragons territories." Schmidt greeted him when Cain entered the office.

"That is excellent news. Can you tell me why they did it last time?" Cain asked.

"Nope, the big boss was too busy with new war plans against the Gnomes to talk." Schmidt denied.

"Where are they going to war? Aren't the Gnomes missing?"

"War plans are secret, sneaky Ancient. But the Frost Giants said they would move away from the Giant's territory." Schmidt informed him, certain that he could keep Cain from finding anything out.

"As long as it's not the Central Continent. That's my place and I own all five of the Gnomes there." Cain replied.

Schmidt smiled, thinking he had gotten the upper hand in the negotiation, and nodded his agreement. "Big Boss says you're not an enemy, so we aren't supposed to bother you or the Blue Elves unless they get annoying."

"That is perfect then. We will sail away and give everyone the good news." Cain agreed, turning to leave.

"Wait, Ancient Cain promised me a reward." Schmidt stopped him.

He was right, Cain did promise him. With one quick activation of [Modify], Cain made Schmidt a whole meter taller and slightly increased his modifiers so he would feel extra powerful.

"What do you think, Clan Chieftain? Did I keep my word?" Cain asked while the Hill Giant posed, checking his new muscles and the way his clothes didn't quite fit anymore.

"I knew Ancients were honest. I will see you again, today I need to inform my soldiers that I am back and even stronger." Schmidt said with a goofy grin. The Hill Giant was an easy man to please.