Potential to Evolve (3)

Bishop's eyes were wide open. What kind of storyline was this? Why couldn't he pause for a moment and complete all the side quest?

He was still weak! He had no clue how potential worked out and clearly, the person that killed old Tom left very little evidence. This case was way out of his league.

There was no way for him to deny it either. He was forced to accept the quest.

"We have no idea who it was. There is no evidence that leads back to the killer either. There is no way we can solve this case, not with just the two of us."

Bishop did not want to take this quest up but since he couldn't get out of it maybe he could talk Jane out of it.

"If we don't find the killer then I'm afraid you'll be the top suspect. Don't forget I have that recording of you getting rid of the body. If it comes down to James or you, I'm sorry but it's going to be James. I won't hesitate to toss you away for even a second."

Hearing Jane's words caused Bishop to realize how he was involved in this. With the recording alone she could force all the attention on Bishop. However, she was giving him a chance to clear both his and Jameson's names. He gritted his teeth and accepted his fate.

"Fine! What do we know?" Bishop asked as he sat down at the table with the two of them.

"Well, I know for a fact that old Tom went upstairs with a woman. So the killer is female. Although old Tom was drunk no normal woman could overpower him." Jane started talking what she knew.

"The sheets on the bed was also messed up and old Tom's pants were gone. Clearly, they had sex, that must have been when she made her move. From the dagger in his neck it cut right into his juggler, he was fated to die at that moment. She did not seem to take anything from him besides a few pages of this worn out booklet." Jane continued to state what she knew.

Bishop raised his hand causing Jane to stop talking.

"How do you know she took the pages? He could have easily tossed it out so no evidence would lead back to him."

Jane smiled. Bishop was using his head a little, if not he wouldn't have brought up this question. There was very little evidence left at the scene but what caused Jane to know the woman's motive was that worn out booklet.

"It's easy really. At first glance, you wouldn't notice anything strange about the booklet. However, if you look in the back of the book there is a little blood stain. No way old Tom could tear out pages while he was busy dying now, could he? Also, the scent left on the booklet belongs to a woman."

Jane answered his questions.

Bishop took in everything Jane said but no matter how much he thought about it, the lack of evidence was still a bit large. They had no idea how this woman looked.

"If we want to solve this we need to know how the woman old Tom was with looked like. Can't go any further without that information. We'd also need to know if old Tom had any enemies."

Jane laughed at the last part. Old Tom and his enemies, there were far too many to count.

"I agree that we should find that woman he was with and our best bet is to ask those who were hanging around here before old Tom was murdered. As for his enemies, there is not even a need to ask around, there are far too many of them. One out of ten people in who hangs around in the bar owes old Tom money. He's done a lot of things since I've known him, all except murder. Asking for those enemies of his is pretty useless."

Bishop sighed. If he could find out how the woman looked and who wanted old Tom dead he was bound to find the killer quickly. Bishop felt like he understood the struggles of a player who came across one of these difficult murder cases.

"If you tell me who was in the tavern when old Tom went upstairs with that woman I'll talk to each of them. You can search for new evidence, there might have been something we missed upstairs." Bishop told Jane.

Jane nodded her head.

"James go get us some paper, there are a few people I recall that need to be looked into."

"I'll go get it right away."

Jane and Bishop were left alone at the wooden table while Jameson hurried upstairs.

It was an awkward silence between the two of them as Jane slowly drunk her beer and Bishop watched her.

"Care to tell the story of you two?" Bishop asked a question to break the silence.

Jane set her glass down and crossed her arms as she closed her eyes.

"Hmm. If you're asking about me and Jameson there is not much to tell. We've lived in Roan Kingdom for as long as I can remember. He's a bit of a troublemaker but a good kid. Never imagined he'd go and become a follower of the holy but as long as it keeps him out of the streets I'm ok with it. Like I said, he's a frail kid but he has a good heart."

"What about you? A woman like yourself seems to hold down this here tavern pretty nicely. If it was anyone else it'd be taken over by some hoodlum within the first few weeks."

Hearing the compliment Bishop gave her caused Jane to grin.

A woman running a tavern was not really 'normal' as many men thought they'd be easy to push around. Once they frightened the female tavern owner, they'd have their way with her and gain all the taverns income.

This was not the case for Jane, you'd have to have some big balls if you wanted to mess around with her.

Jane leaned forward and placed her elbow on the table while she rested her head in her hand.

"You sure want to know about my family. Don't tell me you really are interested in me?"

"A little bit. Just curious as to who I'll be working with."

Jane reached over the table and pinched Bishop's cheeks.

"Maybe some other time. If I tell you who I am you wouldn't be as interested anymore."

Bishop rolled his eyes and pushed her hand away. Jane stayed silent so Bishop looked over his stats.

[Bishop Highwater]

[Human - Male]

[Str - 11][Dex - 11][Con - 11]

[Int - 11][Wis - 11][Char - 11]

[Ability - Evolution]

[Potential Points 250/100]

[Equipment - Rapier, Bronze ring]

All his stats went up by 1 when he wore the bronze ring. He wasn't wearing the medallion or else his stats would be a bit higher.

Bishop thought this was a good time to check out with potential points was. He tried to click on his ability but there was no description.

[Minimum Potential reached!]

[Upgrade - Enhance your basic abilities by consuming potential points. Any equipment you own can be upgraded so that the stats are higher.]

[Evolve - Evolve your mind and body by consuming potential points. The higher points that are consumed the greater the evolution choices are. Evolve any equipment you own to a higher grade while also increase its base stats.]

Bishop furrowed his eyebrows as he read the information about both options. While they were both amazing in their own way, Bishop wanted to know how he gained this ability. Duelist did not have this ability at all, therefore, it was exclusive to him only.

That was the greatest mystery he had to solve and Bishop figured if he was going to solve it the best way to do so was to dive deeper into this world.

Bishop chose the first option, [Upgrade].

[Add +1 to all your stats - 100 potential points.]

[Add +3 to two of your stats - 100 potential points.]

[Add +5 to one stat - 100 potential points.]

[Awakening - Unlocks a passive skill based on your highest attribute - 250 potential points (First purchase is discounted.).]

Bishop looked over the options and thought about it. There was no point in disturbing his stats evenly, it wouldn't help him out much at the beginning. He should pump points into his main attributes that way he could wield certain weapons later on. Also, his strength would gain a larger increase.

Although he thought that, he could not pick the third option. It only gave him an increase of 5 while the second gave him a total of 6. Bishop picked that option without wasting a second and put points into dexterity and wisdom.

Rapier's attack scale with dexterity and Bishop would continue to use this as his main weapon even further down the storyline. The extra dexterity would also help Bishop handle his weapons easier, move a bit faster and just have better control of his hands.

Bishop chose wisdom as his secondary stat due to the bonus magical defense it gave. He'd also have a clearer memory and easier time remember things. In Duelist once wisdom reached a certain threshold the user would gain a passive called Eidetic memory. It was a core skill Bishop wanted to have due to the path he was planning on taking. There was also the effect of increasing mana regen but Bishop didn't think he had mana as he saw no mana bar.

The reason he did not choose Awakening even though the cost was cheap was simply because all his stats were the same. There was no way he'd know which one it'd pick for him. He did not want to have a mage type skill when he was going to be a melee DPS.

When the window closed Bishop felt like he was stronger. There was no light covering his body, nor a headache. It just felt as if he was stronger, he could feel it.

With the potential bar being full again he chose to go with Evolution this time.

[Eyesight]

[Body]

[Blood]

[Claw]

[Wing]

[Tail]

[Horn]

[Weapon]

There were many more options this time for Bishop to choose from. Just clicking on the body option gave Bishop five different options. However, it was only grade one.

[Grade one - The very basic evolution enhancement. The price of these varies from 100 potential points to 500 potential points. You can only choose three type of grade one evolutions before you move on to grade two.]

Bishop looked over the five body options and shook his head.

[Stoneskin - 150 Potential Points]

[Wolverine Fang - 150 Potential Points]

[Firebelly - 200 Potential Points]

[Mana Heart - 350 Potential Points]

[Steel Bones - 100 Potential Points]

Bishop could guess what each one of those would give him, but he was not going to waste his points for any of those. At least he wouldn't now. Mana Heart was what he wanted except it cost a lot.

Bishop looked over the other categories and found that a few were empty. Such as wing, tail, horn, and claw. All those did not have any options for Bishop to choose from.

Although he found it strange he figured that he didn't evolve enough for those options to appear or they were of a higher grade.

Bishop chose to look at weapon evolution next.

[Rapier - White > Rare - 500 Potential Points]

[Add elemental attribute (Random) - 450 Potential Points]

[Add a new attribute (Random) (Maximum of 3 per weapon) - 300 Potential Points]

Bishop looked it over and instantly closed the window. The prices were too high for his blood.

Next on his list was the different blood options and he found that he could pick only two. Goblin blood and Cold-Blooded, both of which cost him 150 Potential Points.

He set those two aside for now and looked over the eye options. There was a total of three he could choose from.

While Bishop scanned through the short list he made a mistake and picked the first option. There was no 'confirmation' when selecting an option, whatever he picked was instantly applied to him.

Bishop felt a sharp pain in his eyes causing him to shut them.

After ten seconds the pain went away and he opened his eyes.

[Evolution success!]

[Evolution compatibility 65%]

[Grade one Evolutions 1 of 3]