"Are you planning to let me get by with so little information?" Lug asked, with a raised eyebrow.

The Wise One looked at him out of the corner of his eye, taking several small breaths into his pipe.

"I'll give you some information."

"How generous." Lug let out wryly.

"There are two main areas in the field of psychic energy. Reinforcement, which you already know, and will learn to master completely in the future; and projection. This is the area Hannah is training in."

"Projection... So strengthening is body related and projection is everything else?" guessed Lug.

"Right. Projection is the ability to project and manipulate psychic energy outside your body."

Lug waited a bit, thinking the Wise One would continue his explanation.

But once the ghost had spit out the smoke that was trapped in his mouth, he said nothing more.

"Should I look at the smoke? Is there a hidden message?" Lug asked.

"No, I'm done." replied the Wise One.

Lug looked at him with disappointment; mild disappointment. Part of him had expected this result.

He was used to being short on information and knew the Wise One's philosophy.

There was nothing worse for progress than an intelligence subordinate to another.

"So to summarize, the training *suitable for my condition* is to go to the Lake, two hours walk from here?" Lug asked.

"Yes, nothing like walking to heal your leg. Force your body to speed up the process." replied the Wise One, sitting comfortably in his chair.

Lug looked confused, then decided to get up.

He leaned against the wall while avoiding putting his right foot on the ground.

He stepped forward and began to walk up the steps of the crypt.

"Thanks for the advice, I'll come back once I've succeeded." said Lug as he left.

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Every step he climbed was a challenge.

Each step he took made him feel pain that set his body on fire.

As if this staircase was made of burning ashes and not marble.

He had to rest every three steps.

Lug still managed to get out of the crypt.

His hip and a whole part of his back were telling him to go to bed.

As he walked home, he realized that he hadn't seen the old woman since she had explained the brain enhancement to him.

"She's not very serious. " he thought to himself.

He was limping, not leaning on his right leg.

"How am I going to make it up to the lake in this state?" he asked himself.

He had a shabby shoe on his left foot, and his right foot was bare.

Putting on a shoe was impossible because of the pain.

And he only had one pair anyway.

The pair he had when he broke through the crypt wall.

The right shoe was just a crushed sole with a few shreds of leather still attached by distended seams.

His knuckles, as for them, still hurt.

They were covered with a thick skin that had formed abnormally fast after the accident.

His arms were shaky if he lifted them.

Overall, Lug was in bad shape.

But he walked past his house, and out of the cemetery.

Despite his desire to go home and sleep, he decided to go straight to training.

It took him four hours to get to the lake.

It was a small miracle that he made it.

Exhausted, it was around 2:00 p.m. when he finally saw the water of the lake, as peaceful as the last time.

He didn't even take the time to rest, he gathered some flat stones and made a small pile.

Then he took one and threw it as hard as he could.

It flew far, but only ricocheted twice.

This throw brought out all the sleeping pain in his arm.

He realized two things:

Throwing hard doesn't make for good ricochets.

And it's the best way to tear your arm off.

So he decided to pick up a rock again, but this time to take it easy.

He ricocheted for almost two hours.

He stopped when his arms could no longer throw anything.

It was late afternoon.

He was in a valley where it was dark long before the sun set.

So he decided to leave, after taking a short break on the ground.

In spite of his exhaustion, the return journey took him only three hours.

His right foot, too sore to be put down that morning, was now able to support his weight for a few seconds.

His arms, which had thrown stones continuously, were tired, but no longer as painful.

He was getting better.

He had not yet realized that his body had changed in a few days.

Lug was already not quite the same person.

But he would only learn that truth later.