Seeing the skill, Jayson was snapped out of his daze. Looking back at the door, he noticed that there was a marking by the handle. He didn't know what it said, but there was a small skull at the end.

*I mean, if I die, I'll just respawn in a different area, and most likely won't have to keep traveling down this hallway. If i get respawned back here, at least I'll be able to move quickly knowing that I've already passed through most of this. But I wonder how high your skill-level had to go for it to be considered Godlike...*

Psyching himself up, he opened the door. On the other side was a prison.

It was a wide room, maybe 20 or so meters wide, and a hundred long. By the walls were tens of cages, big enough to stuff a car into. Most of the cages had skeletons from long-dead captives still inside. Some of the cages were empty, with large portions of their bars either bent or pulled out of the ground and ceiling.

There were small holes within most of the cages, either as toilets or something Jayson didn't know of. Walking closer to the bars, where his could give them more detail, he saw that there were runes carved into them. They had been long-since worn out, with chinks where they used to be, or rust taking up a majority of them, but the runes were still there.

It really made Jayson think, how a civilization capable of creating runes and with people with Godlike skills got destroyed and corrupted. Just as he was going to continue walking, he got a notification.

He had set the game-forums to tell him about any trending subjects. Apparently one had just popped up.

Looking around and making sure that there was nothing around him, he opened it. It was titled: Ley-World player, York Johnson, wins International Bodybuilding Association yearly competition.

*What does a player winning the competition have to do with the game, other than him playing it?*

Going down, there was a video of man. He was the typical bodybuilder, around 185cm tall, with over 140kg of muscle. He had won the competition in the Leg subdivision, subsequently beating the world-records for every maneuver he did. When asked how he won, he simply said Ley-World.

Most people were confused about it, but after a few hours news organizations began linking Gorden Co.'s(company that created Ley World) statement on how the stats in game would increase someones strength in real life, at a factor of 1,000 to 1. This led to people believing that he was most likely one of the Top 10 current Strength players in the world, if not the first place player.

While he would lose muscle from staying in the game and not working out, gaining the strength of an average person on top of what he already had would make a big impact.

Currently, there were hundreds of bodybuilders and Bodybuilding organizations asking to have him disqualified, as it would be unfair to compare him to people who worked on their muscles in reality. This brought on a huge plague of people calling for the game to be shut down as, all sport related programs would be destroyed by people who played the game, Jayson's parents included in the plague.

The Head Devs and the CEO of Gorden Co had stated that they would release an official statement about it later.

*Now that I think about it, next time I leave the game, which should be in a few days, I'll be so much stronger than before. I kind of forgot about it last time with the fact that my parents wanted to talk to me, but this time I should be able to test myself.*

He was also worried that his parents were going to do something. He knew they hated Gorden Co, as it was another large competitor they had to deal with.

*But now, with my increased intelligence, I should finally be able to fight my dad on fair grounds.*

Quickly looking at his stats, he was happy.

StatusNameRelfemRaceVoid-ElfExperienceLevel 1643: 23%TitlesSurvivor, Mass Dark HorseHealth14790/14790Mana31290/31290Health Regen183.5 Per SecondMana Regen325.2 Per SecondVitality1,479Endurance1,935Strength1,778Agility1,242Dexterity1,121Intelligence3,129Wisdom3,252Willpower3,813Status EffectsStats Points5611

Compared to before he began playing the game, he was much more developed in each category. He could tell how every stat other than Wisdom would affect him, but he would leave that for later.

Closing the forums, he got up and continued to explore.

Most of the cages were in the same state or disrepair. There were a few a bit different, with their bars either melted or crushed into a ball, but he simple thought of it as different people escaping in different ways.

Getting closer to the end, he saw something in the corner of a cage. There was a small mass of pure black substance, almost like an even denser version of Maple Syrup slowly bobbing up and down as he got closer. He tried to inspect it, and nothing came up. Either it was some random element that bobbed up and down, or it was the same as the creatures he just killed. He was willing to bet it was the latter, especially when it started moving.

It quickly bounced off the wall it was on, colliding into one of the skeletons in its cell. The two quickly fused together. The black substance wrapped around the bones, acting like muscles, and soon it picked itself up. The skeleton was well over 2 meters tall, and stared at him.

Most of the body was covered, save for the skull, which was connected to the ball through the slime-like substance holding it's spine. Looking at it, Jayson quickly pulled his weapons out. He knew they were still extremely fragile, as he hadn't used them once, but now was as good of time as any to start increasing their damage, as later on in the destroyed city he would probably need them.

He quickly fired two shots at the creature, both doing nothing but simply fading when they touched. He put around 500 mana into each, and when they collided he could 'feel' the gun becoming slightly stronger. Before the skeleton could move though, he quickly began firing like a maniac. Around 40 shots, each with 500 mana left the gun, all trailing towards the skeleton.

It's hand quickly raised up, the bullets all colliding onto it. The last bullet finally did something, causing a small wisp of smoke to come off of the body.

The black mass vibrated and stomped it's foot in pain. With it's stomp, the floor beneath Jayson began to quake before entire prison area cracked, the ceiling beginning to break apart.

Quickly turning his body 90 degrees, Jayson barely dodged a stalactite from impaling him.

Skill gained: Dodging

*You mean to tell me that it took me this long to get dodge? I've been dodging enemies for hundreds of hours already!*

Basic skills, like Dodging, Shooting, Swordsmanship, Punch, Throwing, etc, only get unlocked when you complete a True version of them. Ex. True Dodge, True Shot, True Swing, True Punch, True Throw. True only occur when you complete an action in the most efficient manner, causing it to take a long time for anyone to gain a skill like these.

*Well thanks for telling me this now and now when I start playing the game. Would have helped.*

No problem.

*Is it being sarcastic...*

Quickly pulled out of his thoughts by another boulder that almost crushed him, he continued to fire shots at the beast. They still barely did anything to the thing, other than making larger puffs of smoke appear.

It still hadn't moved from it's spot, its body wriggling around, conjoining around the skeleton even more. Any boulder that came close to them would be absorbed into the black mass, a small, thin layer of rocks appearing on its surface, almost as if to act as a sort of armor.

Though Jayson's damage kept increasing, so did the black mass's defense. He was down to 5,000 mana now, having shot more bullets than he could easily count.

Seeing that this was going nowhere, he tried a different tactic. Using twice, he separated skeleton in half at the hips, the two pieces ending up a few meters from each other. The beast roared, a mouth appearing in the center of the torso, before the two pieces got up and collided together, forming back into the full skeleton, the black mass having sewn itself together.

The mouth still in place, its head jerked towards Jayson. The falling rocks slowed down, soon coming to a stop in mid air. The ceiling held, gravity seemingly turned off in the area, but Jayson could tell that it did something else, as someone who used , he could tell that gravity was trying to force the rocks to move.

The only other option, was it used . You'd think that being able to teleport yourself and control gravity would help you fight against rocks, but considering he was well below ground, there wouldn't be much he would be able to do.