While Haruka led Alex through a series of stretches and other warm-up exercises, Lucius assigned another drill instructor to have his Militia trainees run laps in the muddy fields outside of town so they can get more practice moving on difficult terrain. Then he went to find Persephone to get more information about her and Zeus's expectations over Alex's training. They spoke privately in his office.

"So he really knows nothing about using power?" Lucius couldn't believe it.

"He needs to be trained from the ground up." Persephone reiterated.

"Does he even know what power is then?"

"This is only his second day as a demigod. Zeus tried to explain about power, but there is so much for Alex to learn already."

Lucius was silent as he thought about what it meant to become a demigod without knowing about power. Alex obviously had help which was a serious violation that should normally be reported but Lucius decided it was better not to interfere with Zeus's business. There was no point in causing more trouble than reporting the matter would solve.

...

"You should probably take off that amulet before we wrestle if it's important to you." Haruka told Alex as she limbered up her legs.

"Zeus told me to never take it off though."

"Hmm, alright I'll be careful. Just don't blame me if it gets damaged while we wrestle, ok?"

"Just go easy on me." Alex wasn't afraid of getting a little hurt or dirty, but he saw real power in the muscles under Haruka's soft skin and was fairly certain she would mop the floor with him if she got serious.

"Alright. Let's begin!" Haruka announced.

Haruka dashed forward faster than Alex could follow and put her hands on the front of his shoulders. All Alex felt was a vertigo-inducing sense of movement before he skidded to a stop five meters away. The attendant *tsked* at the sight of the gouged sand he'd have to smooth again.

"Ahah~ I'm really sorry, I thought you were ready." Haruka apologized to Alex before helping him up and gently dusting him off.

If it wasn't for Zeus's protective amulet, that little push might have been Alex's end already. Lucius was just returning and saw what happened.

"Perhaps it was too early to have you working with others. Follow me Alex. Thank you Haruka, I may call on you again but for now, you may return."

Haruka put her right fist over her chest as a salute and watched as Lucius and Alex left the room.

"Where are we going?" Alex asked, still spitting out tiny grains of smoothed shell fragments.

"I'm going to be teaching you the basics of what power is and why it is important for us gods. Then I'll have a little spar with you to see where you're at and plan out your training with you. We'll probably start with plenty of exercise and meditation sessions."

"What does exercising have to do with teaching me to use power?"

Lucius didn't answer Alex right away, he led them into a moderately sized room that contained various stands and training dummies arrayed around the grounds. He then excused the attendant that was watching over the room before having Alex sit on one of the stands shaped like a short tree stump. Lucius took a moment to recall his days as a lecturer before turning back to Alex.

"Forging a stronger body helps to forge a stronger mind and increases your basic energy and endurance. Which, combined with perseverance, can enhance your willpower. All this and more will add up and allow your power both current and max to increase. Also, while you're working your body and muscles, you may feel your power moving within you which would be a massive step forward. It is also far more easy to pull out latent potential by being physically active for some people."

Lucius paused.

"Do you understand so far?"

Alex nodded but asked, "How do I know if I've felt this power?"

"It may be different for each person but for me, it feels like a warm stream of fire or water coursing through my bones, veins and muscles."

Alex looked down, thinking for a moment.

"I may have felt something like that when Haruka was stretching in front of me and a few other times recently." Alex blushed a bit. He wouldn't be saying anything about such embarrassing things if it wasn't between just the guys right then.

"Hahaha. Yes, attractive women can stir the power in us men from time to time. That's the power in you getting ready to make new life. This power leaving you is one of the reasons you feel tired after too much s*x hahaha."

Alex avoided eye contact and didn't know how to respond to that, so he just nodded in an attempt to look like he understood from personal experience that was more meaningful than just from his repeated solo actions.

[{Does it still count as solo action if somebody's watching you?}] Angel coyly asked to herself with a little blush.

Lucius noted Alex's discomfort and started feeling the spirit of mentorship rise up in his chest.

"Trust me to guide you Alex, or you'll just be making this more difficult and we could end up taking more time than necessary. I'll guide you right."

Lucius flexed his muscles and channeled power through them as a show of his capability. His skin had a faint glow that shimmered and moved like faint smoke. Then he remembered time was wasting and moved on.

"Right, I'm also going to teach you how to fight and fend for yourself. It's not good if you need others to defend you all the time and if you're sent out on a mission only to get captured because you couldn't fight back, you become a liability to the rest of us."

Lucius walked over to a wooden pole stuck vertically into the ground and unsheathed his sword.

"Watch carefully as I demonstrate the difference between using power and just relying on your muscles."

Lucius swung his sword, striking a few splinters off the pole's side but not cutting through the dense wood.

"This is just a dull practice sword. It can still cut through flesh with enough momentum, but against armor, you'd have to bash your foe into submission. Next, I'll put a little of my power through the blade."

This time Lucius only gently swiped the sword across the pole but it cut cleanly through it with no visible resistance. The top of the pole didn't even fall until Lucius pushed it with his finger.

"Power makes all the difference in a fight. If you were just a powerless mortal, you'd have to use your technique and elbow grease to defeat your opponent's armor. Here, most battles are about judicious application of power and keeping your reserves for emergencies."

Alex was amazed. He'd only seen this kind of crap in movies and games. But something bothered him.

"If all we need is power, why do the guards still wear all that armor? And if we can imbue power into objects, can't we just shoot empowered bullets to kill our enemies?" Alex asked.

"Bullets? You're from Earth so you must be talking about guns right?" Lucius was familiar with some of Earth's modern military reforms but wasn't up to speed on all the latest gadgets.

Alex nodded with excitement, happy that Lucius understood.

"Yeah, back on Earth our militaries have all sorts of deadly weapons. You wouldn't find anyone wearing ancient armor on a modern battlefield unless they were insane or showing off for the media." Alex explained to Lucius.

"Let me stop you there. You bring up some good points and that reminds me about a few things."

Lucius looked around and grabbed a practice dummy wearing flimsy cloth as armor and planted it in the ground a few feet in front of Alex.

"Power is not just about attack, it can also be used defensively." Lucius prodded and lifted up a corner of the cloth armor. "This is just thin cloth, as it is, this would barely protect you from a sunburn. But if you imbue a bit of power into it, like so and then..."

Lucius forcefully stabbed his sword into the dummy's torso, sending it flying past Alex. Then Lucius picked the dummy up and showed Alex the aftermath. The cloth was as ratty as before but otherwise had no cuts in it.

"With a little bit of power, this flimsy cloth could become better protection than the thickest castle walls. You don't even need armor to use your power defensively but it adds an extra bit of insurance. Then again, this thin cloth doesn't have much material..."

Lucius paused as he considered how far he should get into on this topic.

"This is a little advanced but you should still know all this. Between the gods, armor is mostly there to help you conserve power. How should I put this... Ok, let me put it this way. When a full-on god like Zeus or Athena wears armor on the battlefield, it is not just to look pretty or intimidating or simply symbolic. It is so they can put in less power through the armor and still get as much protection as just letting their power infused skin take a spear or arrow. The main difference is that armor can be removed so that if it gets stubborn acid or sticky fire on it. You won't have to cut your own skin off to get rid of it, or use an extra surge of power to blow it away."

Lucius saw Alex grimacing with a pale face at the thought and chuckled. He needed to toughen the boy up so he wouldn't be so squeamish but at least he was a good listener. The truth unbeknownst to Lucius is that Angel was helping Alex pay attention and absorb this important information.

"Ah, that's right. About guns and bullets. hmm... The short answer is that firearms just aren't as cost-effective as traditional weapons." Lucius went to pick up the top of the wooden pole he cut earlier and broke off its sharp tip as he walked back to Alex. "Guns may look pretty and bang real loud, but their size and reliance on complicated chemical reactions are their biggest downfall here."

Lucius held up the smaller fragment broken off the cut pole and imbued enough power to make it glow and start to shake violently before he flung it at one of the big boulders positioned along the far wall of the room. The fragment made a loud cracking bang as if it was a small firework exploding but didn't do much to the rock.

"If I imbued more power into that chunk of wood, it would have exploded in my palm. That rock is also imbued with a bunch of power so it can withstand any stray attacks during practice. Now, let me show you how much more power a larger piece of wood can hold and what happens when its thrown as a weapon."

Lucius made the broken shaft glow and start to shake after a bit more time than the smaller fragment took.

"You should cover your ears." Lucius warned.

Alex hurriedly complied with a worried look in his eyes.

"I'm just joking. I'll extend some protection to you."

Lucius placed his free hand on Alex's shoulder and generated a protective layer of power around him to protect against the pressure shockwave and any splinters. Then he threw the short pole, like he would a long dart or light javelin, into the boulder producing a massive boom that shook the ground. Shell fragments, from the ground, even flew into the air and arced away from the boulder before landing a couple meters further away.

"See the hole it left?" Lucius pointed at the pitted face of the boulder.

"You can put more power into larger objects like an arrow or a javelin than you can a little bullet. Same goes for thicker armor. The material does make a difference and so does the quality of the power but there isn't that great of a difference on average and that topic is a bit more complicated, so I'll cover it later if needed."

Lucius patted the dazed Alex on the back of the shoulder.

"Guns and bullets can still be useful against weaker demigods but are pretty much just a fancy toy unless a real master took the time and effort to put one together. Even then, its just not cost effective to equip entire armies with them. Not when the soldiers could all be obliterated by a single powerful god."

Lucius let what he said sink in, as he recalled various horrors he'd seen in the past.

["There's also the issue of needing the manpower to run the industry to put in all the work needed to mass produce guns and munitions. All that effort would still go largely to waste if the troops using them didn't have enough power to continuously imbue into their guns and bullets. That is part of what he means by guns not being cost effective Alex."] Angel helped explain.