The door clicked shut behind Ron as he entered the empty library late that evening. Most students were either in their dorms or hanging out at the campus café, leaving the cavernous room eerily quiet. It was the perfect place to conduct a few “experiments” without drawing attention.

He set his bag on a table in the corner, away from the prying eyes of the librarian at the front desk. The artifact sat heavy in his backpack, a silent reminder of the impossible changes it had wrought in him.

Taking a deep breath, Ron pulled out a notepad and pen.

“Alright,” he muttered to himself. “Let’s figure out what I’m dealing with.”

He started with strength. Picking up a thick hardcover book, he squeezed it gently. The spine cracked almost instantly, the pages fluttering loose like a deck of cards.

“Okay... stronger than I thought,” he whispered, setting the ruined book aside.

Next came speed. Ron placed a stopwatch app on his phone, then marked a short path between two shelves. He took a deep breath, crouched slightly, and bolted.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

To his astonishment, he covered the distance in less than a second. The air whistled past him, his shoes barely making contact with the ground.

Panting slightly, he checked the timer.

“0.8 seconds?” he muttered, staring at the screen. “That’s... not human.”

He sank into a chair, his mind racing. Enhanced strength, speed, and intelligence—it was like something out of a superhero movie. But this wasn’t fiction. This was real.

Ron glanced at the artifact, still nestled in his bag. He didn’t understand how it worked or why it had chosen him, but one thing was clear: it had fundamentally changed him.

The next test was focus. He grabbed a random physics textbook from a nearby shelf, flipping to a page filled with complex equations.

Ordinarily, the formulas would have been incomprehensible, the kind of thing that made him zone out after a few lines. But now, the equations practically leapt off the page. He didn’t just understand them—he saw solutions, shortcuts, and patterns that no one else had noticed.

It was exhilarating.

For the next hour, Ron devoured the textbook, his pen flying across the notepad as he worked through problems that had stumped him for years. By the time he finished, his notes were covered in diagrams and equations, all perfectly neat and precise.

He leaned back in his chair, letting out a low whistle.

“This is insane,” he said, running a hand through his hair.

But as the initial excitement faded, a new thought crept into his mind: What now?

Sure, he could ace his exams, impress his professors, maybe even become the star of the campus. But was that enough? With abilities like these, he could do so much more.

The thought lingered as he packed up his things and headed back to his dorm.

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Later that night, Ron sat cross-legged on his bed, the artifact resting in his hands. Its carvings shimmered faintly in the moonlight, as if alive.

“Why me?” he asked aloud, his voice barely above a whisper. “Why give this to someone like me?”

The artifact offered no answers, but Ron could feel its silent presence in his mind—a faint hum, like a distant heartbeat.

Whatever its purpose, he knew one thing for sure: this was just the beginning.