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He was currently in a terrible mood...

Not just because his plan had just been ruined, but also because the threat from that \'Ant Queen\' was just too real.

\'Even with the {Eye of General Observation}, I couldn\'t see her skills.\'

Cain had no idea what skills the creature possessed. The system should have come in handy at a time like this, but it was too busy fucking him over. It provided her name and even her stats, but no clues as to what types of skills she had.

What differentiates the powerful from the weaklings, are skills. All that magnificent power had to be applied someway and somehow, after all. The truly dangerous beings had equally frightening skills, spells and abilities.

This was why the system always gave such an advantage. By knowing their capabilities ahead of time, Cain was able to measure just how much of a threat the opponent was.

Walking forward, his pace measured, Cain spoke firmly,

"We couldn\'t have won."

Ignis sighed, "That seemed to be the case."

Cain threw her a curious look, "You could tell."

Ignis sneered, "Call it intuition, I\'ll call it common sense."

Her harsh gaze fell on Blaze,

"A beast that has the ability to understand and use understandable speech so fluently, that has the power to cast a spell that affects everybody equally across the battlefield... Do you really think you... we can take it on?"

"But..." Blaze tried to argue.

Ignis shook her head, "In my opinion, withdrawing was the smartest move to make."

Cain felt a bit weird...

\'Is she trying to defend me or something?\'

Seeing Blaze\'s strange expression, Cain sighed and patted him on the shoulder,

"Don\'t sweat it. Should we take her words for it, we won\'t need to worry about being attacked any time soon."

Not only that, but perhaps a new frontier could be opened to them in the future. For now though, Cain decided to just play it safe.

He absolutely couldn\'t trust the Beasts. Regardless of how much he tried to convince himself that they looked human. The end of the story was that they weren\'t.

This meant whatever goals they... that Queen had, could very well be in conflict with his own end goal.

While the Ant Queen was strong, the chasm between them could be filled. It would just take some hard work.

Cain shook his head, a bit solemn,

"For now let\'s get back. We\'ll discuss things better then."

***

An hour later, they arrived back at the base camp.

Almost at the same time, Steve and Vincent\'s squad arrived as well. And they looked no better than Cain\'s group in terms of morale and spirits.

Steve\'s face was bitter as he approached them...

"The situation is far more terrible than we expected."

Cain sighed as he walked into the gym, now turned storage facility,

"What happened?"

Vincent sighed, rubbing his muddy face,

"Those freaking flies were everywhere."

His face turned dark,

"And when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere! There\'s more than just one colony out there, about a dozen from their numbers. The moment we attacked one of them, the rest came flying at us."

Cain fell silent. When he spoke, his voice was a bit heavy,

"How many did you lose?"

Steve scratched his chin,

"Five. Many more are injured and will need HP regen potions to heal up."

Cain nodded, "See that they get it on time. As for us, our situation was a bit different..."

After explaining what they had been through, both Steve and Vincent had expressions of shock on their faces,

"But that... how?"

Vincent chuckled darkly, "What are you gonna say next, huh?! That you\'ve achieved enlightenment? You\'re now a monk?! Stop lying!"

Cain was a bit amused, but couldn\'t find it in him to laugh or even smile,

"This isn\'t a joke. Those things are sentient, which means they might be a threat to us... no, to humanity." Blaze said forcefully.

Manny chimed it, "Well, just hear me out! What if they aren\'t all that bad?"

Cain shook his head, "The fact still remains that they can be reasoned with. Not only that, but we also managed to bring any favorable conditions for the time being. That\'s at least better than dealing with mindless harbingers of destruction."

Ignis shook her head, "Intelligent enemies are far more dangerous and wicked than mindless beasts."

Cain rubbed his face. Sitting down onto a hard stool he glanced at Ignis,

"Then what do you suggest we do? We can\'t attack them right now. That is completely out of the question. Not only that, but those Steelheads are going to be giving us more than a few headaches."

Ignis smiled at him, "Well, this is your call to make. Aren\'t you the leader?"

Cain felt his brows twitch. Of course, things would fall on him...

He let out a sigh. He had this feeling...

That all this could have been greatly avoided if he had done more research, put more thought into what he wanted to do before doing it.

\'I\'ve been too hasty.\'

There was reason to rush, to be in a hurry, but that didn\'t mean he could do a sloppy job. The lives of so many people were on the line.

If they died...

Cain would rather suffer eternal torment than have the lives of so many people hanging on his neck.

And so, he forced himself to calm down.

He opened his closed eyes,

"We\'ve been rushing too much, putting the cart before the horse. Let\'s take things slowly for a while."

Steve nodded sagely, "I think that is a wonderful idea. But the question is, what should we do now?"

Cain smiled, "We should start by making a better map of the island."

"Wha-! This isn\'t my fault, you know... I can\'t provide all the details you want, my skills aren\'t that amazing!" Vincent spouted as fast as he could.

Cain chuckled, "You don\'t need to do much. Instead, I\'ll need you... all of you to periodically go into the Darkwood Forest to clear the Steelheads and Nightsongs out from time to time. Absolutely do not engage with the {Redscale Soldiers} until I give the go ahead."

Ignis nodded, "I can accept that. Then..."

But Cain wasn\'t done,

"As for creating a new map, leave that to me."

"You?"

Cain smiled. There had been a certain member he hadn\'t been putting to work.

While Ruby had gone out to hunt freely on her own, and the {Amethyst Silkworm} was busy scouring the depths of the ocean for precious rocks and metals it could devour, the {Dark Soul} had stated with him all this while.

\'Looks like I finally have something for you to do.\' Cain thought to himself.

Cain clapped his hands, "Alright, enough of that. What we need to focus on for now is creating better living situations."

Cain continued, "I\'ll be bringing Suki over here, as well as anyone that might be useful to help with things."

Steve chuckled, "Alright."

Cain nodded. Reaching out with his soul, he touched a certain part of the shadows. Slowly, a dark figure that had been resting on the shade of his shadows slowly separated from it.

Before anyone could make out what it was, it sped off, swimming into nearby shadows, disappearing from sight.

Cain sighed lightly.

To properly expand, one must first create borders and barriers. Otherwise, you won\'t even realize where you are going. Mindless expansion is disorder.

"We can start by clearing out the surrounding Darkwood forest bit by bit." Cain started.

"Perhaps we might even be able to use them to our advantage. The Darkwood bark is some very tough stuff. I haven\'t even been able to analyze it properly." Steve said with a wide grin.

Cain nodded, "You can do that as well. Clear the Steelheads out bit by bit. No matter how threatening they are, if we take it easy, we can wipe them out someday."

Ignis smiled and shook her head,

"What do you plan on doing about the {Redscale Soldiers}? Are you planning on letting the matter die down?"

Cain\'s eyes were frigid, "Of course not. But keep it on the low for now."

With that, Cain figured he had said all he needed to. He had given the {Dark Soul} a mission... two missions;

Scope out the entire forest, and find out what the Ant Queen was up to. Both wouldn\'t be easy in the slightest.

\'Sorry, buddy. You\'re gonna have to work very hard from now on.\'

When all was said and done, Cain said his goodbyes and walked into the guarded path made by Steve, eventually making his way to the spot he had used to arrive on this distant island.

Drawing a few mana shards from his inventory, he placed them around the magic circle. It glowed for a little bit, then with a flash of light, Cain disappeared from existence.

And reappeared in a place thousands of kilometers away...