Chapter 6: The Shaping of Power

Eli sat on the edge of his bed, his fingers absentmindedly turning his toy robot over and over. He hadn't expected to leave the hospital so soon, but his mother must have worked some magic with the staff. Or, as his father would say, she had "pulled some strings." He felt better now, though the memory of his encounter with Mrs. Clara in the hospital still lingered in his mind. It hadn't scared him—no, seeing Mrs. Clara had filled him with an odd sense of calm. But it had also reminded him of something important: his powers were more than just a game.

The robot in his hands was different now. He had raised it to level two in the hospital, and the screen with its stats had shown him something real. It wasn't just his imagination. Something was changing.

Looking down at the robot, a thought crossed Eli's mind. What would happen if I melted this down? Would it lose its level? Or was the energy inside it permanent?

His heart raced with excitement. Now that he was back home, he had all the time he needed to experiment—especially since he was homeschooled. He was sure his mom wouldn't notice if he slipped downstairs to his father's workshop. She was busy changing clothes after work, and his dad was still away on a business trip.

Quietly, Eli stood up and grabbed another identical robot toy from his pile, the one that hadn't been leveled up yet. This was going to be his control.

The house was silent as Eli slipped down the stairs, the faint hum of the refrigerator the only sound accompanying him. His mother was still upstairs, so he crept through the hallway and into his father's workshop, carefully pushing the door closed behind him. The familiar smell of metal and oil hit his nose, and he felt a rush of excitement.

His dad's workshop was like a treasure trove of tools, gadgets, and half-finished projects. But what Eli needed was the small electric furnace his dad had made for him last year—a safe way for Eli to melt small things without the risks of using the larger equipment. His father had taught him to melt down old metal scraps and plastic models to reshape them into new forms.

He grabbed a stopwatch from his father's cluttered desk and started timing.

The toy robot took about a minute and a half to melt completely, the plastic liquefying into a small pool at the bottom of the crucible. Eli scribbled down the time in his notebook, his heart thumping with excitement. The process had gone just as expected.

He let the crucible cool before cleaning it out. Then he took a deep breath and placed the leveled toy robot inside, the one he had upgraded in the hospital. His fingers hesitated for a second as he wondered what would happen. Would it melt the same way? Or would the upgrade have changed it?

With a sense of anticipation, he repeated the process, turning the furnace on and setting the stopwatch again. This time, as the heat began to rise, he watched carefully.

The toy didn't melt as quickly.

Eli's eyes widened as the seconds ticked by. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes. His heart raced as he stared at the molten toy inside, still holding its shape longer than it should have. Finally, after five and a half minutes—three times longer than the un-leveled toy—the robot melted into a pool of plastic.

He stopped the timer and wrote the time down, his hands shaking with excitement.

"Five and a half minutes…" Eli muttered to himself, feeling a rush of triumph. Leveling up the toy had increased its durability by a factor of five. This wasn't just a game—it was real. His powers were real.

But he wasn't done yet.

Eli grabbed some Play-Doh from a nearby shelf and quickly molded it into a basic ring shape. He wanted to see what would happen if he cooled the melted toy into something completely different—a new form. Would it retain its essence? Or would it lose its power?

Carefully, he poured the molten plastic into the ring mold and waited for it to cool. His heart pounded in his chest as he watched the liquid harden and solidify, taking on the shape of the ring.

Finally, when the plastic was cool enough to touch, he pried the Play-Doh mold apart, revealing the new object in his hand. A simple ring, made from the remains of the toy.

Eli stared at it, his breath catching in his throat. There was something different about it. The ring felt different. When he held it in his hand, a strange tingling sensation ran up his arm, as if the ring itself was alive with energy. He felt a connection to it, just like he had felt with the leveled-up toy in the hospital.

And then, the screen appeared again:

Level 0 Item: Melted Toy Ring

Defense: 1/5

Attack: 2/6

Description: Once a toy that brought joy, but it has given all it can.

Eli's eyes widened. It had retained some of the toy's stats, even though its form had changed. It wasn't as strong as it had been when it was a robot, but the energy inside—the essence—was still there, just altered.

The power tasted richer, deeper, as if the essence had condensed in the new form. The essence hadn't disappeared—it had simply shifted.

Eli grinned, excitement bubbling up inside him. This was more than he had ever imagined. If he could reshape toys and objects, what else could he do? What other limits could he push? The possibilities swirled in his mind, and for the first time, he realized that his powers might be far greater than he had initially thought.

He was sure of one thing now: he wasn't just an ordinary kid with a strange imagination. He had real powers—and he was going to find out just how far they could go.