Lug bent his elbow and pulled his arm back.

He had learned from his mistakes.

He strengthened his arm to 30% of its capacity.

Simultaneously, he strengthened the rest of his body to about 10% of its capacity.

This required a lot of concentration and psychic energy.

In other words, he didn't have the possibility to try many throws.

He began to blow gently through his mouth.

Then suddenly, without a sound, his body moved.

If someone had seen him throw the stone, he would have thought Lug’s forearm had bent backwards under the violence of the movement.

Then he would have heard the wind make a shrill noise, bent by the flat stone that spun at full speed.

It made only four ricochets before reaching the other side of the lake.

But it did not return.

Yet Lug had left psychic energy on it.

He took a deep breath and relaxed his body.

He sat down at the edge of the lake.

"Tssss... Something is still missing," he said, throwing a small pebble into the water in annoyance.

Lug had the feeling that he was stagnating.

Yet he had made enormous progress in a very short time.

But it was nothing.

He had convinced himself that the only viable training was the one that hurt him.

The one where he would bleed, suffer, lose his mind even.

He knew that the Wise One had given him that training until he recovered fully.

But he couldn't go back to him empty-handed.

Lug had changed a lot in a few weeks.

At first he had refused the training, and now he was willing to do anything to see it through.

Was it out of fear of dying, or of ending up as a guinea pig?

No.

Of course, that was a big part of his new motivation.

But something new had been born in him.

The Wise One had brought to light something unimaginable in Lug's eyes.

The possibility of becoming someone else.

The possibility of becoming worthy of Hannah.

The possibility of leaving behind weakness and passivity.

Lug did not like himself.

And by the same token, he didn't like life.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But things had begun to change for the better.

He had finally begun to value himself.

Although, it depended on his ability to progress.

It was still a *conditional* happiness.

But still it was happiness, that was something.

Lug got up and went back to the ghost who was sunbathing on his boulder, in the shade of his little parasol.

He sat down next to him, in the same place as the last time.

The ghost looked at him with hostility, he did not like to be disturbed.

Lug looked closely at the objects he had materialized.

Flip-flops, an umbrella, a deckchair.

A bathing suit.

He was wearing a model that no longer existed.

A sign that the time of his death was a distant memory - or a distant oblivion.

"He materialized the objects he was most attached to. In other words, the objects he knew best" thought Lug.

The midday sun was still far away, Lug had come very early today.

He had taken the habit of strengthening his body to 10% while climbing the mountain.

It took him only an hour to reach the lake.

His coat was pulled up to his chin.

He was protected from the cold wind, but every breeze he felt made him shiver.

Seeing this ghost settled as if it were unbearably hot gave Lug a strange feeling.

He decided to go away.

While walking he felt lost.

He had never been stuck on a problem for so long.

That's when he thought of Hannah.

"The Wise One said she was training in projection, maybe she could help me."

Lug was happy to hit the *call* button on his phone.

He had finally found a good reason to do it.

The phone rang three times before a soft voice answered.

"Lug?"

"Hi, Hannah. Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm surprised, I thought you'd forgotten about me. You never call me. Are you dying…? No that's right, even when you're dying you don't call me." Hannah was prickly.

Lug let out a nervous chuckle, he hadn't expected such a reaction.

"Ahah, sorry. I don't mean to bother you. I just have a question regarding my training."

"Just kidding Lug. I'm always happy to hear from you. Please, tell me everything."

"Thank you. The Wise One asked me to throw a stone and make it come back to me. He told me about the projection technique but I'm not sure what to do with it. Do you have an idea?" said Lug.

After a short silence, Hannah began to speak.

"Sorry, I'm eating. Mmmm... He's a sadistic bastard, asking you to do something like this without explaining anything... You'd think he wanted you to fail. After all, it's just like him, I can already imagine him saying that it builds character or something.”

There was another silence.

Then Hannah resumed.

"I'll quickly explain the basics. So... Projection has three main branches.

Manipulation, which is infusing your psychic energy into a body. This is basically what the wise man uses to move objects from a distance.

Expansion, which consists in using your external psychic energy as a part of your body. This is what allows the Wise to know and feel everything from a distance.

Materialization, which consists in giving a precise form to your psychic energy. This is how the wise man creates his pipe or his board for example.

Do you follow so far?" asked Hannah.

"Yes, but can you send me a message with the details of all this?" asked Lug a little embarrassed.

"Of course. Let me continue. Your stone, to make it come back you have to use manipulation. You infuse your energy into it and then you manipulate it from a distance to make it come back. All you need to have is a clear intention.Pretty simple when you put it that way, but it takes practice."

"Sounds like telekinesis" Lug replied.

"Yes, it is."

"And... can you do it?" asked Lug.

"I train mostly on expansion. So no, but I know the theory."

Hannah was speaking rather quickly.

Lug sensed that she was busy and decided to let her finish her meal.

"Thank you so much Hannah. I think I can manage it now."

"My pleasure, keep me posted, good luck!" she said.

"Goodbye! And have a good lunch!"

"Bye Lug."

Lug put the phone back in his pocket after hanging up.

It was cold despite the sun that was overhead.

He undressed and jumped into the lake.

The water was so cold that he felt like his skin was burning.

His lungs were filling to capacity.

It was the first time he had dived into the lake.

But why there, now?

Probably because Lug needed to act on a whim when he felt overwhelmed.

To him, the best answer to chaos was chaos.