The King of Spiders and a small pack of blue kobolds emerged out of a narrow tunnel. He found himself surrounded by the sloping hills and sheared cliffs of the mountain. Everything around him was white, even the sky. He couldn't see the sun nor the horizon, the strong winds carried small blue particles in the air blocking the distant views. And most importantly of all, it was cold, very cold.

“Huh, so you aren’t afraid of open spaces?” He asked trying not to think about the cold.

“No-no, blues are fine going out like this.”

“King. It’s. Too. Cold.” The stone spider complained.

“Slow. Debuff.” The glowing spider added.

“Interesting. I didn’t get it.” But then again he had put on an extra two layers of clothes. “But, maybe this environment is not the best for spiders.”

“Sleepy.” The stone spider was dragging his feet in tiredness.

“Yeah, you two head back. I should be alright, but is it far?”

“No-no, not far. Come.” The kobold guided him towards another tunnel.

It was made for kobolds so he kind of had to crouch and even crawl sometimes. He knocked on the bluish wall of the tunnel, it was made entirely out of ice. Now and then they would emerge outside, but only for a moment until they found another tunnel. At least in the ice tunnels, there was no wind so it felt marginally warmer, but still frigidly cold.

“King, are you hungry?” The kobold asked out of the blue.

“We just had a feast don’t tell me your hungry already?”

The kobold pointed at the open sky. He had to wipe the frost from his eyelids to see properly, but there it was: A massive creature floating in the sky. It was light grey and its underside blue, it had a huge maw. The creature resembled a flying whale and it was eating those tiny blue particles in the air. He looked in disbelief, he didn’t know monsters could fly like that; some magic was definitely at play.

“A bird.” The kobold explained helpfully. “It means it has eggs hidden nearby.” She licked her lips greedily.

It looked like a whale, it ate blue particles like a whale would eat plankton, and it even made that low humming sound of a whale. But if the kobold said it’s a bird, then it is a bird… regardless of pointless thoughts, “Won’t it be angered if we take its eggs?”

“No-no, you see,” The kobold began digging through the layer of compacted snow and ice, “it won’t see us, he-he.”

He was getting sidetracked but he was interested, so he crouched through a narrow space. The blue kobolds knew what they were doing because, in a matter of minutes, they emerged into an igloo-like space. It was filled with white leathery eggs, each the size of a kobold; and there was quite a few of them.

“So many.” Even the blue Kobold Leader was surprised.

With a quick swing of her claws, she sliced the top of a leathery egg and scooped some egg white; surprisingly it wasn’t frozen. Other Kobolds joined soon partaking in the slurping. There was a saying: when in Rome do as Romans do. He too scooped some of the slimy egg white.

He just didn’t know how to describe the taste. It was very cold but not frozen, sweet, slippery and oily. “Tastes like melted ice cream, but this is still very cold.”

“Ice? You shouldn’t eat ice.” The kobold warned unaware of what ice cream was. “Especially the yellow ice, never eat that.”

He knew that! “Huh, I can’t seem to be able to deposit this into my Magical Inventory.” That was because the egg counted as a living thing, or something like that.

“No worries, we will carry a few back to the camp.” The kobolds began rolling the eggs.

“Hey, I’m here for the fortress.”

“Oh, yes-yes.” They stopped moving the eggs.

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

“No-no.” The kobold shook her head vigorously. “Come.” They began digging another tunnel.

After a while, they emerged outside into the wind and cold, and from there on they just walked. He wanted to be quick about this but the kobolds just insisted on rolling at least one egg with them. That was in case they got ‘hungry’ again. He told them that he had fruits in his inventory but the kobolds just ignored him.

There was a particularly bad gust of wind, and worse it carried those blue particles, a whole cloud of them. Apparently, they were hard crystalline, or at least it felt like that, because when they hit his face it hurt. He shielded his head from the assault.

[Debuff active: Frozen]

The cloud blew past him, and he found himself unable to move. The kobolds, however, seemed unaffected and just ogled his frozen frame with curious looks. Luckily the negative status effect didn’t last.

“Sorry, I got frozen for a moment.”

The kobolds still looked at him curiously, but they didn’t comment. “Come, the fortress is not far.” They let the egg slide off the cliff first. It rolled instead of sliding and smashed into an icy boulder below, surprisingly it didn’t crack.

He followed after Kobolds joining on a slide. He found himself below at a foot of an icy valley bordered by the rocky mountain range from all sides, the weather was slightly better since the frigid wind was gone.

“There.” The kobold pointed.

Indeed, there was a black granite structure in the distance – an entire fortress. The fortress had tall imposing walls and scouting towers overlooking the valley. In the middle of it was another tower, wider and taller than the rest. It looked old, ancient even, so some walls had holes and cracks but it was very well built because the towers still stood strong.

“Undead.” She reminded him.

“Yeah, let's go closer.” He was curious, the fortress must have some mysteries hidden inside.

The kobolds were visibly unnerved but they followed him regardless.

“I have my scrolls with me, we should be alright. But are there many undead there?”

The blue Kobold Leader just shrugged. “Well, there is one.”

Further away there was a dark figure shambling through the packed snow and towards him.

“I wonder if they’re intelligent. Maybe I can trade with them…” He looked at the mysterious figure. “Let’s stop and wait for it to come to us.”

The kobolds stood a good few metres behind him, it was clear they didn’t like to be anywhere near the fortress and especially undead. The shambler got closer ever so slowly. It was a figure of a man, there were barely any clothes left revealing a gaunt appearance and blackened skin, but he still had a black helmet and remains of broken chain mail on his neck and shoulders.

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“Hello.” He shouted at the undead hoping that the Language Comprehension will kick in.

The blackened shambler didn’t reply, he only limped towards him at a slow pace. It was close, only metres away.

“Hello?” He tried again hopefully.

“Uhhhhggghhh.” The undead moaned and quickened his pace.

“Oh...” It was almost upon him. “Oh, shoot! Fire Arrow.” He burned a scroll releasing a spell.

It slammed into the shambler's head knocking the undead off his feet. The kobolds clapped and cheered.

“I don’t think it's very strong. Fire Arrow.” He burned another scroll, then another and another.

The undead was now burning even in this frigid weather, and it still managed to stand up.

“Well, I take it back. That’s one resilient dude.” He readied his spear. “Let’s see if this is any better.” He thrust the Devouring Spear right into the blackened burning face. It went straight through; the spear glowed storing the soul.

[Fighting +1000exp], the experience was decent.

“And it’s dead.” In retrospect, if there were more he would struggle to handle them, but one on one an undead like this stood no chance.

Just as he was thinking that he could see a whole bunch of undead shambling right out of the fortress gate; the pyrotechnics show must have attracted their attention.

“I saw, what I wanted, we can go back.”

The kobolds sighed in relief.

“But before I go, [Harvest Material].”

[Wither Bone] x1, went right into his inventory. It was a long black femur bone, its properties and use still unknown.

The kobolds were already rolling the egg all the way back.

“Come on, just leave it. I’ll give you some fruit.”

“No-no, it’s a good charm to roll an egg. Protects from bad things.” The kobold informed sagely.

They reached the sloping cliff and he smiled knowingly that the egg journey must end here; there were no means to carry the massive egg up the slope.

“No way.” He was left surprised.

A line of three kobolds used their heads to push the egg up while they clawed at the slope with their sharp feet. They moved quickly and efficiently, the teamwork impeccable; by the looks of it, it wasn’t the first time they had to do this. So the egg rolled ever so closer to the Kobold Camp.

It would have reached the destination if not for a small problem. Well, the problem was actually massive. A wail of a ‘bird’ reverberate bouncing between the mountain walls. The creature was flying right towards the kobolds and the egg. Its huge body slammed into the ground sending a shower of ice and snow into the air; the creature opened its maw and was moving rapidly towards the group leaving them no time to dodge the fast approach.

He had been once swallowed by a creature this large and he didn’t want to repeat the experience.

“[Shadow Walk]” He took a step but walked ten. And with three 'steps' he was out of harm's way.

The kobolds and the egg got swallowed by the sky whale. That was no good, that included the Kobold Leader’s wife to be.

“I didn’t see any teeth ,so I pray that you Kobolds are safe. I will get you out soon!” He shouted. “Somehow…” He whispered.

Without wasting any time he burned a scroll, “Darkness Cloud.” The cloud clung to the whale's head but wasn’t big enough to envelop its massive body. Nor did he want that, he just hoped to confuse the creature. He spent another precious second retrieving the Bow of Darkness, “[Dark Bolt], [Piercing Strike],” he fired.

The bolt pierced the side of the whale penetrating its defences. However, he would need to shoot many more because they hardly even scratched it and now it was beginning to hover out of the hole it made in the ice.

“[Dark Bolt]x3” He fired arrows in quick succession. The projectiles left small holes in its side, and they leaked light blue blood ever so slightly. He kept firing and the sky whale kept ascending higher.

“It's going to escape at this rate” For a big monster, he had to use a big weapon, so. “Take that.” He flung a Fire Grenade. The yellow orb flew straight and true and then smashed into the monster's side smearing the FireAgave juice, and then Fire Spirit Stone powder did its thing setting the flammable juice alight. A normal fire would probably be extinguished instantly, but this one clung to the monster’s body burning ever hotter.

The sky whale shrieked in a pained wail and shot straight up. It was almost out of reach for his bow.

“Give back my friends you fish!” He fired another volley of piercing dark bolts. “Die already!” He kept at it but the distance was making it difficult.

The Darkness Cloud wore off and the sky whale was dashing through the air away.

“It’s getting away, I can’t reach it.” He tried but the bolts missed. “RIP kobolds, you will be missed.” He said a small prayer.

The sky whale wobbled in the air ever so slightly. “Oh, did the damage finally catch up with it?” He renewed his efforts to catch up with the monster. It wobbled some more and started a slow descent to the icy ground, but before it could reach the ice its belly split and blue Kobolds spilled from it. The whale let out a final shriek and slammed into the mountain face head first, [Fighting +10000exp].

“You guys, you're alive!” He rushed to the kobolds.

They were slimy and the frigid wind was already turning that goo into icicles, but the blue kobolds didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Instead, they cheered and giggled, “We did it!”, “Yes-yes!”, then they raised the egg, which somehow survived all that and began chanting, “Egg! Egg! Egg!”, They gave it a lift above their heads and carried it like some sort of divine artefact.

“I doubt it was the egg that saved you.” He said with loaded implication waving his bow.

“Yes-yes, the egg is a good luck charm. We survived!”

“Right, maybe stop parading it so openly. What if another sky whale sees it and takes offence?” He warned.

“Then we’ll cut it open from the inside again.” The blue kobold nodded in assurance that it won’t be a problem. “Kobolds are the bestest hunters!”

“I guess… you can. But that’s not the best hunting strategy. Anyway, what do we do with the corpse?”

“It’s delicious!” She licked her muzzle.

Indeed, there was a lot of meat, almost too much. “Hmm, since it’s dead if you help me to cut it I should be able to carry it in my inventory.”

“Yes-Yes!” The kobold danced still giddy.

“But before we start, let's hide the egg. Just in case.” He worried that another sky whale might attack because of it.

“No-No. Will give bad luck. It stays.” The kobold crossed her arms.

“Okay then, let's harvest this monster quickly. Everyone, help.”

The kobolds were better butchers than he was, their natural claws sliced through frozen freezing flesh like it was butter, actually, they cut better if it was frozen; strange.

His inventory was quickly filled with goodies:

[IceShard Bird Meat] x 100000, [IceShard Bird Leather] x250, [IceShard Bird Bones] x 100, [IceShard Plankton] x1000, [IceShard Bird Core] x 1.

And yeah, according to the system, it was IceShard Plankton Bird and not a whale, so Kobolds knew what they were talking about. He stared at this inventory for quite a while, it was crazy, in his Magical Inventory space he had a hundred slots for items, but as long as it was a single type of item it didn’t matter how much he had of it, so the entire harvested whale only took 5 inventory slots. This meant that he was now carrying 100 tonnes of meat and not feeling it; this skill was broken! On another note killing these things was a very profitable business; but judging by the lack of other sightings, these ‘birds’ must be quite rare.

The items he obtained were interesting, ever since he obtained Crafting lvl. 3 he was able to tell what sort of enchantments/affinity the items provided, that is if they had enchanting properties at all.

[IceShard Bird Leather: Ice Resistance]

[IceShard Bird Bones: Ice Attribute]

[IceShard Plankton: Ice Damage]

[IceShard Bird Core: ???]

But yeah, the information wasn’t always complete, it worked like a rough guide mostly. Saying that, he was the most interested in the Core since he had a hunch it was some sort of magical floatation organ. Why? Because then he took it out, the core hovered in the air defying all gravity.

He will give the Kobolds their fair share of the loot, but that core – he’s keeping that.