A little less than a Torotian week after the fight with the Blood Mage, Kay woke to an empty house.

Higher tier people needed less sleep, and so Kay was used to Eleniah being up at least an hour or two before him. She apparently had been, but she hadn’t stuck around according to the note on the table. It read: “Got a good lead on the Nelamian stuff, headed out after it. Will check in two days from now. If you don’t hear from me by then, head to Guildmaster Caruion, he’s been prepped on what I’m doing. Be safe.”

He looked down at the note for awhile, unsure what to do. He didn’t really have any plans for the day… He shrugged and put the note down. He wasn’t going to worry that much, at least until the day after tomorrow. She was hundreds of years old, and one of the most powerful people in this city, combat wise. The odds of her getting kidnapped or something was low.

He washed himself down with a damp cloth and made himself something to eat, then debated what to do. He’d taken the last few days off and mostly hung out and trained with Eleniah. They’d decided not to practice with his pressure cutter idea, to prevent damage to the house, but he’d managed to get in a good bit of practice with his new compression of blood ability. He was able to make real smashing attacks and spears of blood now, as opposed to needles and orbs. It took his damage potential to another level.

Thinking about his blood based water saw idea, he grabbed his gear, including a new halberd, and got ready to head out to the Adventurer’s Guild. He’d been taking a break out of a need for relaxation after a strenuous event, and now he was feeling better. Why not head out on a job, and test his idea somewhere empty? It would let him do something he wanted to do, and probably make a little bit of money on the side.

As he walked, he noticed people looking at him. He was starting to get used to that because of the nasty rumors that had been spread about him, but these looks were different. Some of them were still suspicious or untrusting, but a majority of them were now interested or confused. Some even looked admiring, and a few people were outright smiling at him as he passed. The idea of different people having different reactions to the news of him killing the Blood Mage that the rumors had said he was working with wasn’t unsurprising, but the fact that it had spread around the entire city this damn fast was. Was there some kind of magical gossip phone tree in Tumbling Rapids? It reminded him of the time he went to visit his friend Chase’s small town hometown. He’d told one person about himself and by the next day the whole town knew his life’s story!

That memory got him to the door of the Guild. Once inside he started going through the open jobs, looking for something acceptable. The different boards were divided into groupings of difficulty. With his record and being a tier three now, he could probably move up a rank and start taking harder jobs, but he didn’t feel like it. There was paperwork involved, and his displayed class wouldn’t be Swordsman (Bastards Swords) anymore, so he’d put it off until he couldn’t put it off.

He froze in place. His displayed class wouldn’t be Swordsman (Bastard Swords) anymore. Until he hit tier four in a class his displayed class for anyone Inspecting him would be Blood Manipulator. Fuck. Shit. He internally beat himself up as he realized the mistake he’d made. He was too excited about tiering up that he’d forgotten. He glanced around at the other people in the building, then suppressed his urge to watch people, to see if they were Inspecting him. He didn’t have Inspection Detection or any similar skills, so there was no way to tell if anyone was actually Inspecting him, or just looking at him. He forced himself to calm down, focusing on the fact that most people wouldn’t have a high enough inspection value to see the name of his class, just his name and highest tier. He started mentally tallying his money. How much would an Inspect blocking enchanted item cost?

He was so focused on the potential problem he’d caused himself that he didn’t hear anyone walking up behind him.

“Hey, Kay!”

Startled, Kay jumped back and went for his dagger.

Eduard jumped back in response. “Shit! Sorry, man, didn’t mean to scare you.”

Kay sighed and dropped his hand. “Sorry, got caught up in a thought.”

“No problem, sorry to startle you.” Eduard stepped forward and smacked his shoulder. “How are you?”

“I’m alright, how are you guys? Did you just get back from that job?”

“We got back last night. We’re all doing fine, only minor injuries. He gestured at the eating area of the Guild. “We have a table, want to come chat for a bit?”

“Sure.” Kay followed his half-elf friend over to his party, who were sitting down eating.

“Eduard found Kay!” Alice cheered as she glanced up and saw them approaching. She grabbed Korz arm and pulled him towards her. “Make room!”

Kay sat down in the now free space, watching Korz’s grin as he was plastered up against Alice. “Hey everyone.”

The party all greeted him cheerfully, then most of the went back to eating.

“Hi, Kay!” Alice smiled at him from around her beastkin seatmate. “How are you?”

“I’m doing pretty well, you?”

“I’m great!” She looked at him for a moment, a massive grin on her face. “Guess what?”

“What?”

“Korz finally told me how he feels about me!” She crowed.

Korz smiled shyly, his expression at odds with his usual gruff manner.

“Really?” Kay smiled back as he patted Korz’s shoulder. “Congratulations!”

“Thank you! I’ve been waiting for him to say something for forever!” She smiled at him and leaned down to kiss his cheek. “I’m pretty damn happy right now.”

Korz flushed and stared down into his plate.

Alice leaned across her new lover’s back. Kay wasn’t sure if they had the terms “girlfriend” or “boyfriend” here so he was going with the ubiquitous “lover”. “Hey, stop calling us my harem please? It makes him unhappy,” She whispered.

“No problem.” Kay whispered back. Korz getting annoyed at them being called that, or his level of annoyance at it, had shouted to Kay that he had feelings for Alice. He’d keep it quiet, and he’d tell Eleniah not to do it either.

“You know I can hear you both, right?” Korz asked.

Alice giggled and sat back in her seat.

Korz sighed and smiled at her. “But yeah, it is annoying, so please stop.” Korz asked, turning back to Kay.

“I’ll stop, since you don’t like it.” Kay promised.

Alice giggled again. “I don’t know why you’re so against it. It’s not like I’m some rich lady or powerful lady that will ever actually have a harem.”

“So? It annoys me!”

“Wait.” Kay interrupted the brewing lover-teasing-session or whatever you wanted to call it. “There’s polygamy in this world?”

“And polyandry. Some countries or people have different rules about it, but almost everyone has it at the higher level of people or leaders.” Eduard replied.

Seeing someone else take over the explanation, Alice and Korz went back to teasing each other and flirting.

“Why?” Kay asked, turning to ignore the new couple.

“Because of affinity and power.” Eduard half heartedly glared at the couple, then faced Kay from across the table. “Having powerful people marry multiple others has two main effects that most nations and organizations want. The first is connections. A lot of the marriages are at least somewhat political, and making those connections help create alliances. The second thing is the theory of lineage affinities.”

“Affinities are shared by people’s kids?”

“That’s the major theory. A lot of the powerful people in the world want to ensure their legacy isn’t tainted and that it grows stronger. They try and have lots of kids with other powerful people or people with complimentary affinities, in attempt to breed stronger children. That way their children are “guaranteed” to be stronger. It secures their lineage, and for the more powerful people it lets them literally breed strong lieutenants with a dedicated interest in helping them.”

“That seems… cold.”

“It definitely can be.” Eduard agreed. “It obviously isn’t always, but it definitely can be.”

“So polygamy, regardless of gender, is common in higher tier people?”

He waved his hand in a “sort-of” gesture. “It’s a combination of high tier and political power. People that have influence other than their combat potential. Across the known world their are probably hundreds of thousands of tier fours and thousands of tier fives. So not all of the tier fives are going to have more tan one spouse. Pretty much all the tier sixes I know of do though. ”

“Interesting.” Kay thought about it for a bit, then shrugged. “Another thing I didn’t know. How was your job?” He asked, changing the subject.

“It went well!” Alice replied, jumping back into the conversation. “We managed to hunt down the bandit group giving that caravan problems, and made a bunch of money!”

“We finally have enough for a Party item.” Korz added.

“That reminds me, why do you guys even need one?” Kay asked. “Do they don anything special that makes them needed? From my perspective you already are a full party.” Since things were only sort-of video game like in this world, he didn’t expect them to get a party-chat function or anything like that.

“Thanks.” Verndan replied, then he went back to his food, his expression a bit blank.

“These days it’s mostly an image thing.” Eduard explained. “A really long time ago, there was nothing to keep a member of a party from betraying or cheating the others. Then the first Party item got discovered or made. They bind the people in a Party to terms established when the Party is formed, and prevents members from cheating each other or stabbing each other in the back. “

“That sounds both important and helpful. My home world doesn’t have anything like that, so it’s trust all the way.” Kay commented.

“You guys also don’t have a lot of adventuring and finding powerful treasures, right?” Alice asked.

“Good point.”

Eduard continued the explanation. “So, Party items became a big deal, especially in adventuring. Then, a few hundred years ago, the first Agreement making class popped up. Since Agreements are both cheaper and easier to get than Party items, it became significantly more common for partys to just sign agreements with each other, like we did.” He gestured around the table at the four of them. “We’ve been together a few years, and we trust each other now, so we don’t need a Party item, but because of how they were important for so long, it’s a bit of a status thing to be a Party, as opposed to a party.”

“I get it. It makes you look better to certain clients who think it’s important.”

“Exactly. And, it’s really hard to get out of a Party, so it shows our dedication to each other, to ourselves and the Guild.”

“And we’ve got a pretty good lead on one here in Tumbling Rapids!” Alice added. “The merchant who thinks they can get one promised us first offer if they manage to get it!”

“That’s awesome!” Kay congratulated the party.

“Isn’t it?”

“Hey, Vern.” Korz tapped their leader on the arm.

“Huh?”

“You done eating? You’ve been staring at an empty plate for awhile.”

“What?” He looked down at his empty plate again. “Oh. Yeah, I’m done. Let me take everyone’s dishes up.” He grabbed up all the plates and utensils and walked them up to the counter.

“Is he okay?” Kay asked.

“He’s fine.” Alice answered. “He’s just trying to plan out his path. He wants to incorporate some kind of magic into his build, but he’s not sure what. So he’s trying to imagine a bunch of possibilities and how they might work together.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Want to go on a job?” Alice asked as Verndan made it back. “We can take an easy one and just make a little bit of money.”

“Sure. I’ve got something I want to experiment with, so an easy job outside the city sounds perfect.”