Grra the Yeti lived a simple life. This morning he’d said goodbye to his wife and kid and left to go hunting. In fact, he had been feeling rather hopeful and promised his son, Yrgg the Yeti, that he’d even try to bring back some human flesh. While a human bystander would probably have been unable to understand the rapid series of growls and yaps the three Yetis had used in communication, the rare High-Level [Beastmaster] or [Telepath] might’ve recognized that Grra had formed a rather functional family of Yetis that were only just below human intelligence.

If you’d asked Grra how he’d come to be, you’d probably be eaten, but deep in the recesses of his mind, Grra remembered. Once, a long long time ago, at least thirty snow falls ago, he’d been a spirit, a wisp, a low Level [Elemental] to be exact formed from an excess of mana ores at the bottom of a cave. Well, he’d quickly shot up to be a Level 40 [Elemental] and gained the Skill |Subsume|. In those dark caves, he’d found a shiny ore that had glown with blue light, and being an [Elemental] who instinctively swallowed mana, he’d incorporated it into his body with his Level 40 Skill and become an ice elemental. One thing had led to another, and his instincts had led him out of the cave and into a vast cold snowy world, exactly what would help his native attributes show their true strength and allow him to Level extremely quickly. And so, Grra the Ice Elemental had killed dozens of small animals, subsuming their corpses and stealing their mana to sustain himself. Although to be fair, he hadn’t known his name was Grra at the time, but eventually, he’d found it. His first human! Grra licked his lips. Although his previous memories were faint, his life had completely changed at that moment, turning him into the fearsome monster he was now.

The human’s name had been something strange, complicated, John. Grra glanced at his hands, which looked like some mutated apes. Yes, Grra had watched that shivering man, sent gusts of his wind his way until that man had closed his eyes to hypothermia. As that man took his final breaths, Grra had gained a Skill. Perhaps, it was a quirk of fate or something… destined, but Grra had gained the Parasitic |Inhabit| Skill. Grra the Ice Elemental had entered that human and changed him until John had been no more, and only Grra the Yeti. And what a strong Yeti he was! At the end of his evolution, he’d started out as a Level 30 [Yeti] due to his dozens of Levels as an [Ice Elemental]. At first, he’d been confused about losing Levels since his simple mind even back then had known that Levels meant strength, but he’d quickly learned that some Levels were stronger than others. Grra knew what stronger meant. Stronger meant you could eat more things, and they couldn’t eat you. In Grra’s mind, the ideal world would be one where he was strongest, and on this mountain, Grra was strongest for the elements listened to him, and he hadn’t been eaten. These two things provided the only necessary proof that he was the strongest.

Grra’s [Basic Intelligence] Skill he’d gained at Level 40 went into overdrive as he listened to the wind to determine whether there was any prey nearby. Something lurked a few miles away. Thinking quickly, Grra loped toward the group the wind spoke of, careful to avoid attracting their attention. He thought of his wife Gruu who was waiting for him with their son back at the lair. He scrunched his brows. Gruu was weaker than him by a lot, and their son weaker than both of them, but like he had, they would grow. He’d formed Gruu a few snow falls back from the most powerful ice elemental he’d found and another human body. It had been weird, but he’d used a special Skill called |Molding| to twist the ice elemental’s soul around a fragment of his and made another Yeti by forcefully evolving the elemental. Initially, the newly formed Gruu had been simple, much like Grra had been when first formed. Having never seen another like herself, and finding an unwary target, Gruu had naturally attacked. However, Grra, the target, was well aware of her, and the quick ambush had turned into a deathmatch that had Gruu on top of Grra, but Grra had the other's wrists. This is when the match had turned into a battle of the hips and the rest could only be seen as a glint in the Yeti’s eye and a smirk on his monstrous jaw. That had been five winters ago now. Then, Gruu had left, and Grra had been too lazy to see to his new creation. Communication between the two did not occur for the first year, just repeats of the deathmatch and hip grinding of the two. Eventually, Gruu seemed to become less… vicious and calmed down. By the end of that first Winter, neither really sought the other’s life in these battles, but it was still a point of dominance and pride.

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In Grra’s estimate, Gruu was currently around Level 35, so almost twenty-five Levels behind himself, but despite that, Gruu was relatively powerful and could move unfettered throughout their mountain. Grra suddenly clenched his fist in anger, remembering that fateful day when his first family had died.

It had been three winters ago when Grra had waited for Gruu to come when something strange had happened: Gruu had not come. By now they had both known the position of the other’s nest, so Grra had had no trouble making his way to hers. What he had found had startled him on many levels. First had been the litter of smaller Yetis that had lain bloody and slain around the cave. The next thing had been Gruu. She had been covered in scratches and bruises as she had cowered on her bedding, bundling over something with her back exposed. Then, he’d finally noticed them, the humans and those with beast-like traits. A primal rage had filled Grra as he’d stared, dumbstruck, at the carnage. Even then, before he’d gained |Humanoid Intelligence|, he had not been so dense as to not figure out that the newly born Yeti laying around were his children. After all, there was no other Yeti in these lands besides for the two of them. Nor had he been foolish enough to not figure out that the humans had been toying with Gruu in her weakened state. Only one of his children had survived that day, Yrgg.

Grra tightened his fist. After that fateful day, he had sworn to become stronger so that he could protect Gruu. Icicles emerged out of his knuckles, as hard as enchanted steel, as he remembered mauling through the intruders. Grra let out a savage roar so loud that he imagined even Gruu could hear it back in their home. It was time for him to show once more why he was King of the Mountain by taking down this new pack of intruders of whom the wind whispered.