After talking with the group that was gathered at RhickJaymz's office for a while, Cain finally agreed to help them out a little. The attacks had been along the section of the northern continent closest to the Western Continent, so he was going to fly over and check out the region.
He had never been to the Northern Continent before and knew next to nothing about it except that it was somewhere around the Eastern Continent in power, except for the crater in the center which was an awakened area. Well, that and the winters were cold, but the weather hardly counts as essential information about a Continent.
There was only one thing left to do before leaving, and that was to find some winter wear or a warmth spell for Cyrene. Lamia aren't cold-blooded, but they are very sensitive to the cold, with a lot of normally uncovered flesh showing. Since there isn't anything covering the snake portion of their bodies, they can get cold very quickly, so between the high altitude flight and the colder temperatures of the Northern Continent, Cyrene was going to need something, and Cain thought it would be best if she could cast it herself, just in case.
While Cain thought he activated [Warming Hug] a very simple skill that he had gotten mostly for the amusement factor, but one that proved exceptionally useful for everyday situations, since it made hugs extra comfortable.
Cain thought through a number of protection spells that he had seen, then the perfect one occurred to him. [Air Armor] wasn't a particularly powerful armor spell, but it deflected wind and maintained air temperature around the user. Both he and Cyrene could benefit from having that skill, even if he himself didn't really get cold.
"Can I borrow a room? I need to make a couple of books really quickly, to deal with the temperatures on the Northern Continent." Cain asked RhickJaymz, who pointed across the hall towards an empty room.
"That one should do. The desk isn't a big one, so the space should be enough for you to work." The Earl replied, then turned back to the conversation with the Dragon riders about what they were going to collectively do about the issue.
The Dragon Rider faction was most likely much more powerful than whoever was messing with trade right now, but their numbers weren't really high. Dealing with troublemakers that were hiding somewhere on the high seas was going to be a serious issue for them. There might only be one Cain, but the Laughing God favored him in strange ways, so he was fairly sure that if he just hung around the ocean for a while some idiot would attack him.
It worked pretty much every time before after all.
Every time Cain created a spellbook the process intrigued Cyrene. The Inscription skill wasn't a skill that she had, but watching it done, with the mystic letters appearing on the pages as the process completed, and then the magical binding that appeared around the book if you were successful was just such an amazing sight that she couldn't get enough of it.
For this book, the runes on the page appeared as a grayish blue color of ink as Cain worked, carefully scribing through one book according to the information in his memory. Of course, she didn't know that Cain cheated when he did all his inscriptions and merged with something that had the skill he wanted, so he could see all the runes he needed to write, instead of having to memorize them, but the process was no less awesome to the Lamia.
The first book is finished and an almost white leather cover appears over the thin book. It's only a soft leather cover, indicating that the book is D ranked, as opposed to F rank which would have a paper cover, or C rank which would be a hardcover book with very little embellishment.
"I could have used [Spell Crafting] and made a fancier spell, but this one should be more than enough to keep us warm while we explore the Northern Continent," Cain explained as he started on the process of the second book, handing the first one to Cyrene.
She is still holding the book, watching him work when the second one is completed and Cain flicks her forehead to get her to focus.
"You need to learn the book in order to use the spell. Pretty much all spell casting classes can use these ones, so it shouldn't be an issue for you." Cain told her, and Cyrene quickly learned the skill to avoid having her forehead flicked again.
With the essentials complete, Cain said his goodbyes to the Earl and the Dragon Riders and stepped outside onto the terrace. Flying over in Ancient form would be the fastest way, and Cyrene is already wrapped around him, so Cain decided not to summon anything.
"Prepare to relax your wrap. I'm going to transform." Cain informed her, shifting to his Ancient form for the first time in a long while.
It had gotten bigger, and somehow more wriggly. The tentacles on his face were no longer short like a mustache but hung down to the middle of his chest in a very wizardly tentacle beard. The form was also now twenty meters tall, with a wingspan of over fifty meters, enough to intimidate even a Mythic Dragon.
"I like the improvement, Master. You look much more intimidating in this form, and you don't even have your aura activated." Cyrene congratulated him, and Cain used his facial tentacles to pat her head.
Unlike the ones on his arm, they didn't have any suckers or biting beaks on them, they were just for wrapping things up to guide them to his mouth, or apparently for patting his pets.
Cain realized he had made a miscalculation when he took off. This wasn't the Southern Continent which had long-lived species and good history books, Ancients were a horrific fairytale here on the Central Continent, and he had just transformed in the middle of town.
As they raced over the open ocean, Cain went over the description of the attackers in his mind. Their ship colors and sails weren't uniform, so he couldn't go by that, but the fact that they would have some form of Giants on them would be a good clue. Unfortunately, there were still legitimate trading vessels from the Western Continent that would have Giant species on them, so he couldn't just sink every suspicious vessel that he came across or he would make the problem worse.
As sunset approached Cain saw the distinctive black sails and red hulls of a Wave Rider raiding team on the horizon. They should have information for him if he could manage to talk to them without them attacking.
Then he saw a lucky sight, one Pink hull in the mix. It had black sails up as it traveled with the fleet, but Cain's keen eyesight saw a very familiar Elf on deck. That was Nila, aboard Queen Rose.
She has obviously seen the enormous flying tentacle monster, so when Cain sees her she is waving happily and calling something to the crew, possibly telling them to get out of the way so he can land.
There's really not enough room for his expanded form on the deck of the ship though, so Cain calls for a full-grown Leviathan like Moana prefers to use, and lands on it before transforming into the Wave Rider Captain form that he had used before.
The flying whale is a welcome sight among the fleet, and now quite a few of the other ships' crews are waving at him as the Leviathan brings him over close to Queen Rose.
[There you go boss.] The summoned Leviathan's voice sounds in his mind, a deep baritone that echoes in his thoughts.
[Thanks. You can hang around if you want, visit the Elves, maybe find a nice annoying raiding ship to eat.] Cain suggests.
[Have you ever eaten a ship? They're crunchy and tasteless. The best choice is to use [Consume] on them and then just inhale the leftovers after the vortex crushes them to dust.] He complains, sending Cain a mental image of crunching on flavorless wood that reminds him of unflavored and unsalted potato chips.
"Good to see you again. The evil twin and Mythryll are sleeping down below, but they will be up in a few minutes." Nila greets him, while the Puppet crew gives Cain a bow as they go about their work.
"No need to rush them. Tell me all you know about these annoyances that have been blockading the Northern Continent. RhickJaymz and the Dragon Riders asked me to look into it. I was flying to the coast when I saw the flotilla and thought I would come to get some decent answers."
Nila nods in understanding and brings out a small map, holding it down on the deck between the benches to move it out of the wind so she can show Cain where they have been finding the attackers.
"So far, the only hostile ones have been ships with Giants on them, at least those are the only ones hostile to the Wave Riders, but a few coastal cities have reported problems with human vessels as well. It's hard to tell what is new and what is leftover from the changes in power level and people trying to fill the voids left after city Champions fell. Speaking of which, the Wave Riders have a modified version of the world quest to obtain an Admiral title for becoming the Guardian of a group of ships. Some of them will definitely want to talk to you about that when we get to the floating city."
The floating city is the home of the Wave Riders, a mysterious hidden city on the open ocean that very few have seen and lived to tell others about. To be welcomed there is an honor for Cain, especially if they have Frost Giant Vodka.
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