The next day, Aditya woke up early as always. He was used to rising early out of bed for his daily riyaas—after all, it was very important for singers to exercise their throat daily or it would become rusty and useless.
After completing all of his morning riyaas exercises, Aditya ate the remaining meat pork from yesterday. And now, it was finally time to log in to the game!
Meanwhile in ROL…
You have made a beast contract with a horned deer. It is your beast companion from now on. Its loyalty has been increased by fifty points.
After Teen made a contract with the beast, the deer knelt on all fours in front of her, officially recognizing her as its master. It then affectionately nudged Teen's face with its muzzle. As it did, a new notification appeared in front of her:
Please give a name to your pet. As you are the first person to have this deer as a pet, its name will forever be carried with it and can't be changed until the deer dies. Please choose wisely.
Reading the notification, Teen grinned and quickly named her beast. Another notification appeared as the newly named deer hopped happily upon receiving a name from its mistress.
You have named your pet: Small Tyton. It has gained an affinity with the darkness element due to the player being a dark priest. All of its stats have been increased by fifty points.
Teen was shocked after seeing the notification, but she remembered reading in an information guide that in ROL, pets owned by a player gain affinity with the player's element—but retain their natural affinity as well. For example, if a fire dragon (fire affinity) became the pet of an ice mage, it would gain the ice affinity too—resulting in a dual affinity dragon. However, the opposite elements might weaken each other.
In Teen's case, this didn't happen. The horned deer already had an affinity for ice, and her darkness affinity gave it a dual nature—ice/darkness. The stats now looked like this:
Name: Small Tyton
Race: Horned Deer
Affinity: Ice/Darkness
Level: 7/20
Stats:
Strength: 30
Agility: 35
Health: 250/250
Willpower: 30
Constitution: 25
Mana: 70/70
Stamina: 250/250
Intelligence: 14
These were, according to Teen, average stats at best. She had hoped for an OP pet as her first companion and felt slightly disappointed—but she didn't regret her choice. She knew what the deer had suffered through, and more than anyone, she understood what it meant to be treated like a pawn.
In real life, Teen lived in Gujarat—a state in the western part of India. She had experienced extreme hardships growing up, especially during her early childhood. Her parents had been poor but proud, living in a region where, without the protection of powerful allies, even basic survival was a challenge.
Tragedy struck early. Bandits had overrun their home, and Teen's parents were taken from her. She was sold into illegal custody and endured years of trauma no child should face. Those experiences had left her hardened, closed off, and emotionally distant from the world.
But that was before she met him—her current father, Lord Ignatius.