Jake and the other members of team Charlie felt fear, true fear as they looked in front of them, lined up as they were.

“Oh, don’t look so worried, we’re not aiming to hurt you but to train you.” The words of Charlie sounded calming, if it weren’t for that grin on his face belying his true intentions.

“Exactly, you should all be honoured that you get to be trained by some of the strongest Demigods in Aegis…” Edgar’s smile was bright and happy, but in such a suspicious way that no one could bring themselves to trust it.

“And even if you were to get hurt in training we know quite a few healing spells after all.” Rose didn’t even bother hiding her thoughts as her hands kept forming into an approximation of Mary’s throat... squeezing slowly.

“Anyway, you will be training with us until otherwise stated. Mark, come with me.” Shane Bismarck, son of Hephaestus called over his younger brother, who followed.

Shane was arguably the worst of the four Demigods training team Charlie, as mentioned, Shane was a workaholic despite his appearance.

Everyone moved over to their teachers for their current iteration of training, Derek moving towards Edgar, Mary being dragged by Terri towards Rose as Charlie walked away with Jake.

“Uh, this doesn’t change much, does it sir?” Jake asked, not willing to speak casually during training… especially when anything he did might get Charlie to up the training.

“For you and I, not really, given that I was always training you, the difference is that we got more time to train and I can afford to go more in depth now.” Charlie said, looking across the large empty space he was given.

Well, it was still property of Aegis, but that didn’t matter to Charlie really.

“For one, I’m going to tell you a few things that should really boost your abilities as a long-ranged fighter. Firstly, your new bow was completed a few days ago, here it is.” Charlie snapped his fingers (a mental activation for his magic apparently, though when forced he could do magic without snapping his fingers) and a hole appeared in space.

Reaching in, Charlie removed a bow that looked just like Solaris Ignus did when Jake turned a normal bow into it…

“The shape helps stabilize the divinity, think of Solaris Ignus as a square, and normal bows are circles. There’s going to be some damage forcing that square into the circle, but if we change the circle into a square…” Charlie’s explanation did explain a bit about how shape actually helped.

Winter’s Bane had the engravings on it before it transformed, they were just difficult to see until Charlie turned it into a Divine Weapon.

“Not just appearances, but also the creator has a role in it. The bow looks like Solaris Ignus, and was created by a Demigod, someone who holds Divinity, making it a better vessel for the Divine.” Charlie smirked, and Jake understood why Demigods only used weapons made by other Demigods.

When Demigods created something, they automatically made said things attuned for other Demigods, even if said Demigod wasn’t capable of creating Divine Weaponry, such as Derek or Mary whose parents weren’t focused around a specific weapon type.

Derek did have an affinity for all weapons, but because of that he had no Divine Weapon, instead getting a flat boost to all weaponry when he used them.

A sword capable of cutting through trees would now be capable of cutting through concrete in his hands, all without dulling, for example.

Demigods creating things for other Demigods also explained why Demigods could fight in what looked like casual clothes, with their ambient mana enhancing them, their clothes would be bullet proof at worst.

And that defence would only increase if it was another Demigod that made those clothes…

“Now that you have a good weapon, let’s talk about your training.” Charlie said, sitting down on the grass, Jake taking a seat across from him.

“For an archer, there are quite a few important things you need to consider. Stance, or stability, power, which is determined by your draw, and speed, determined by how fast you can notch another arrow.” This was an abridged course but Jake nodded in agreement.

“This is for normal archers, but as a Demigod, we do practical combat. You cannot afford to stand still unless you have suddenly gained invulnerability or your team is completely locking down the God in place, highly unlikely.” Jake nodded in understanding.

When they fought Python, Jake dealt the most damage, but had he stood still he probably would have died.

It was like hunting sharks from a shark cage. It’s safe, but things can go wrong.

“Other than movement, you also need to attack from a longer distance than you are comfortable with, and there are often cases for Demigods where they need to hit the enemy even if the attack isn’t a clean one.” Another thing Jake appreciated, getting a nod from Charlie.

Charlie could have said all these things before the fight against Python, but the thing is that Jake might not have appreciated the advice until he realized how said advice was necessary.

It was a case of the student not believing the teacher until the student got a bit further on his own.

“So for our training, we’ll be training moving, but maintaining the ability to fire an arrow, as well as being able to hit a target no matter the situation.” Charlie said, getting a nod from Jake…

Jake would soon wish he never agreed so easily, as Charlie snapped his fingers.

Snapping his fingers, Charlie created a wall of ice surrounding them, and then different targets of ice beyond the wall.

“…You’re going to be attacking me while I do it, huh?” Jake asked nervously, only now noticing the growing smirk on Charlie’s face.

“Of course… Demigods grow stronger the closer they are to death after all…” Charlie’s ominous words, along with his revolver becoming Winter’s Bane, signalled the start of training.

Forward one hour, and Jake was breathing heavily, which was saying something, because since becoming a Demigod Jake had never found himself getting tired from exercising… the only time seemed to be when he was being trained by Charlie…

“Come on kid, we’re doing this for a few weeks, or until another God attacks, whichever comes first.” Charlie was not joking, a team that survived an encounter with a God was given longer training times.

As for school work, that would be done later in bulk. Killing Gods in the defence of humanity was more important than homework, regardless of what mister Rook said.

Mister Rook was a dirty liar, regardless of his child-like form.

“Listen, Jake, I know I’m trying to viciously kill you in the guise of training, but you could at least work a little harder.” Charlie’s words were spoken in joking… Jake wasn’t sure what the joke was given that Jake thought his limbs would freeze off multiple times.

The training was actually helpful, beyond getting Jake into the mind set of ‘everything is trying to kill me, maybe by freezing’ in that Jake was seeing how a veteran Demigod used a Divine Weapon.

Winter’s Bane was a revolver and pretty different from Jakes own Solaris Ignus Bow, but it was still a ranged weapon and Jake could pick up some tricks from Charlie’s use of it.

For instance, Winter’s Bane was a perfect conductor for Charlie’s magic apparently, given that Charlie could activate magic in areas simply by pointing the barrel of the revolver in the general direction of his target.

Concentrated blasts were like bullets though, and he’d have to properly aim for that.

Given that Charlie could shoot the wings off of a fly at a mile out, without hurting said fly beyond that, Jake was pretty sure that Charlie could casually aim and kill many.

Luckily Charlie was a good Demigod, right?

“Ah… this reminds me of when I used to rob trains back in the West… good times.” Charlie was psychic, he had to be… he also had to be sadistic.

“All truths aside, compare the advantages of your bow compared to my revolver.” Charlie gestured to the icy-blue magical revolver.

“It’s the same with all firearms really. Firearms, unless fired over extremely large distances, all move in a straight line. Bows on the other hand hold the advantage of having an adjustable level of force.” Charlie then pointed towards one of the targets which was slightly melted from one of Jake’s arrows.

“Guns do not have adjustable force, though they in general have greater force than arrows…” Charlie looked to the gun with a sigh before looking back to Jake.

“With Demigods, it’s different though. Demigods do not entirely have to obey the laws of physics due to our ambient magic. As such, a Demigod can fire an arrow just as far as a bullet flies, and even further when they are strong enough.” Charlie sighed as he could already see the question in Jake’s eyes.

‘If that is the case, why do you not use a bow?’ Charlie had no doubt that Jake was considering that, but Charlie had his reasons…

Reasons which no one was privy to, and Charlie doubted that he’d randomly blurt it out to the younger Demigod.

“Other than the advantages of the weapon itself, I’m sure you’ve picked up a bit about Divine Weapon usage. A key part which I’m not sure if you’ve figured out is that simply holding your weapon increases your strength.” Jake looked down to Solaris Ignus with wide eyes at that admittance.

“Trust me, when you become capable of tossing buildings with ease, the boost will be noticeable. And when you finally become capable of proper magic.” Charlie’s eyes narrowed at that last sentence hinting to Jake how annoyed the older Demigod was at Jake’s apparent lack of talent with magic.

Oh he could do the raw manipulation Mary did… but unlike Mary, Jake didn’t have a Draconic Heart beating in his chest to make the transferal of mana easier.

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Mary’s talent for magic was immense, but… she wasn’t any good at understanding it.

In the words of Rose: It’s like giving a fighter jet to a four year old. They might be able to do something, but more likely than not they’ll crash.

Rose just barely managed to get Mary to the point of ‘take off’ so to speak.

But, even with her horrendous ability with magic beyond instinct, Mary’s sheer amount of mana would boost any spell she used to a huge extent.

Jake didn’t have that benefit, so he needed to start using structured spells.

“Sir, why don’t you teach me magic?” Jake’s question was valid, as Charlie could use magic quite well from what Jake could see…

But that was just it. What he could see.

“Jake, as a son of Apollo, you possess a talent for divination, fire based magic and the subcategory of temperature magic. Given that Apollo is also related to medicine and plague, you could probably do a bit of healing and poisoning too.” Charlie explained, having stopped the spar to explain this important information.

“I can do none of those except maybe temperature magic, and I’m horrible with it. My specialty is in magic related to stealth, ice, and to a certain extent trees.” Charlie was actually giving a minor hint to his Godly parent, but he knew Jake didn’t know enough about mythology to guess.

Charlie was also adamant that it should be called Demigod History instead of mythology given that it wasn’t myth anymore, but no one agreed except Edgar.

And while Edgar was strong, he wasn’t exactly… sane at times.

“I share no magic areas with you and so I’d be a terrible teacher. At least Mary could use fire magic like you. In all honesty, we’re waiting for Rose to finish training Mary and Terri before she trains you.” Jake noted Charlie’s look of annoyance as he realized the names of the two rhymed.

“Oh, okay… though, is it alright if you taught me a bit of the common knowledge about magic?” Jake asked, getting a sigh and nod from Charlie.

No doubt Mary felt it unimportant the last time she tried to train Jake in magic.

“Okay, let me just remember a lecture by the little lady… Magic is the invocation of miracles through energy we refer to as mana.” The start of the explanation was something out of a fantasy…

It was everything Jake hoped it would sound like.

“Mana is something generated by existing, everything in the world possesses mana to some extent, from the smallest pebbles to the air we breathe.” Charlie gestured to a small pebble before continuing his explanation.

“Magic, is what occurs when something beyond the natural occurs at the willing of an intelligent being controlling their mana, subconsciously or not.” It was a bit confusing when Charlie said it, but Jake got the gist of it.

“Magic is split into quite a few groups, but the largest ones are Ritual, Formal, Structured, and Free, each one opposing another.” Charlie snapped his fingers, and a circle divided into four quadrants appeared made of ice.

“The only one you can currently use is Free Magic, it is the raw manipulation of mana into phenomenon, it’s a method all magic users are taught, but it is honestly only an entry level group of magic… for us at least.” Charlie created a block to fill one quadrant.

“For Gods, they possess enormous amounts of mana due to their divinity, and for them, Free Magic is actually the standard. They don’t need to use any of the other types because they can brute force mana into the results they want without feeling tired, where we Demigods would die from loss of mana.” Jake gulped at the knowledge that he knew the same magic type as Gods, and that they’d always win him in that group.

“Next is Structured, the opposite of Free Magic. Structured Magic is what I suspect you’ll be best at, as Structured Magic can alternatively be referred to as Physics Magic.” Jake smiled at the mention of the subject… even if he spat at the laws of physics every day with his mere existence.

“Structured Magic is done through calculations and subtle application of mana to invoke phenomenon, essentially allowing you to get more effect for less mana.” Charlie’s words made the group of magic sound brilliant.

“Structured Magic is however limited by, as you expect, Physics. With Free Magic you could create a fire that could stay lit underwater, but with Structured Magic that wouldn’t work.” Jake understood the idea then, and why Structured Magic and Free Magic were considered opposites.

One used imagination and raw power to actualize impossible feats.

The other used calculation and precise control to actualize theoretically possible feats.

“Then, continuing with the explanation, is Ritual Magic. Ritual Magic is closer to Free Magic than Structured, but takes a bit from both.” Charlie explained as he snapped his fingers, creating a miniature room of ice sculptures.

“Ritual Magic is the melding of magic between one person and many others, creating a chain effect where the power of all participants of the ritual would multiply to enact an effect on reality.” The ice sculptures began to move slightly, looking like they were praying.

“The drawback to Ritual Magic is that everyone involved must trust each other, and should a mistake occur something nasty would occur.” For example, one of the ice sculptures turned into a frog.

“The fourth and final grouping of magic would be Formal Magic. This, as the opposite of Ritual Magic, is closer to Structured Magic than Free Magic, but like Ritual Magic takes bit of both.” Charlie said, closing the circle of ice and having the word ‘magic’ engraved in it.

“Formal Magic differs from Ritual Magic in the sense that it is essentially a Ritual done by one person with the assistance of ambient mana floating around the earth.” The previous room of ice sculptures was replaced by one ice sculpture in front of a circle.

“Another key difference is that Ritual Magic focuses on enacting instant effects, while Formal Magic works best for long lasting things.” Charlie said, showing two different sculptures, one where a man made a fire (still made of ice by the way) and the other having a group of people make a small explosion.

The fire continued, the explosion did not of course.

“These are the four general groups we use, though you should also consider how to bypass certain things.” Charlie’s smirk was the kind one saw on children before they got into trouble as he held up his hand.

On his hand, a flame appeared, surprising Jake, mostly because the flame was icy blue, and instead of emitting heat, the flame absorbed it.

“Would you say this is Free Magic or Structured Magic?” Charlie asked Jake with that same grin on his face as Jake narrowed his eyes.

“Well, from your explanation, I’d say Free Magic… but your expression says that it can’t be that simple, so I say Structured.” Jake answered getting only a widening of the smirk.

“The answer is both.” Jake blinked at that, a frown coming over his face at being wrong.

“Just because the branches of magic are considered opposites does not mean they cannot be mixed, they aren’t mutually exclusive existences.” Charlie began to ‘juggle’ the flame as more began to appear.

“You see, the ice flame has the same basis as a flame, consuming fuel to emit a temperature. That is the Structured part of the magic. But, by adding a bit of Free Magic to the mix, I change the fuel from ‘mana’ to ‘heat’ and instead of emitting heat, it emits cold.” Charlie’s explanation had wide eyes from Jake.

“Wait, then would it be possible to create a flame that emitted mana instead of temperature?” Jake’s question would be valid, but Charlie’s raised eyebrow denounced it.

“I suppose you’re thinking of making a nigh eternal power source, but you also need to consider that temperature isn’t permanent, for this place to get hot, the heat must come from somewhere, that’s one of Newton’s Laws remember?” Indeed, Jake did, Energy cannot be destroyed or created, only distributed.

“But… don’t we deny the laws of physics in some ways?” Jake asked, thinking back to seeing Rose Cora lifting a bed from one of its legs.

“Not necessarily, we ‘deny’ those laws because of our ambient mana. You see, the amount of mana a thing possesses is determined by its weight of existence, though that could be changed in some ways.” Charlie clearly knew a few ways given by his thoughtful appearance.

“Now take a rock. It’s not important right, so you’d say it has little mana. Now take a rock they threw at Christ when he walked to be crucified, wouldn’t the latter possess more ‘weight’ to its existence?” Indeed, when one looked at it like that, it made a bit more sense.

“Now the ‘weightiest’ things in existence are Divinity and Earth itself.” Charlie explained, and Jake blinked at the heavy subjects.

“The two existences who benefit most from those things are Gods and Dragons respectively, with Gods possessing Divinity and Dragons being granted Mana by the Earth.” Charlie’s words harkened back to talk of Mary being part-dragon.

“Divinity is the result of all of humanity believing in something, in hoping. Granted, back when there were less humans it was easier to gain Divinity, but now in the modern era of about six to seven billion humans, it’s much more difficult.” Charlie’s words were said with a tired sigh.

“Anyway, Divinity grants a huge amount of importance to your existence, granting you a larger mana pool. Now we started this talk about magic and then moved to physics, now let’s move back to magic. Magic, for all of its mysticism, is a type of physics on its own.” Jake blinked in confusion at this, getting a groan from Charlie.

“The strange things we Demigods do, such as running past the sound barrier without our bones breaking or actually causing damaging sonic booms, are possible because our existence is allowed such advantages due to the weight of our existence. Basically, us picking up that house is more important than the fact that house should be breaking and we should be falling over.” It was strange, but Jake was starting to get the idea.

“Wait… so you’re saying that existence is like a corrupt justice system? A normal person tries to lift a heavy object from its corner, he feels more weight and tips over, but when we do it, physics gives us a pass because we’re more important?” Jake’s analogy actually got a laugh from Charlie.

“You’re the second person I’ve met to say that, the first being the little lady. Rose had the same complaints, saying that being good at magic is just being good at playing the system.”

Jake dropped his jaw at that, the foremost expert at magic actually said that about magic itself?

“Ahem, where were we… oh yeah, denying the laws of physics is something we do because we have that kind of clout. But a spell used like you suggested would no longer be connected to us after we left it alone. Meaning it would be subject to physics once more, and it would begin to take heat from all over the world.” Jake paled as he realized what he just suggested.

“Sure, some people might appreciate it, what with global warming, but if the spell wasn’t stopped fast enough you’d launch the world in a never ending winter.” Jake was glad he asked these things before he even considered doing such magic… or was capable of such things.

“Okay, don’t do that, got it… but what about what sir mentioned, increasing mana capacity?” Jake got a nod from Charlie at the question, showing that Charlie was hoping that Jake would actually think about it.

“Increasing mana capacity is done through many ways, but the most important one is typically experiences.” Charlie gestured between himself and Jake.

“Think about the life we’ve both lived up until this moment. For one, I’m older than three hundred years whereas you aren’t even into your twenties. When it comes to the amount of experiences we’ve had, I win.” Charlie said, and Jake began to understand why it was said that ‘older Demigods always win’.

“Other than the ‘amount’ of experiences, the importance of said experiences is another thing to take into consideration. If you and I arm-wrestle right now and it is considered as an experience, you’d earn more mana than I would because of the different meaning of the moment.” Charlie said, gesturing to his arm.

One small crater and sore wrist later, Charlie continued his explanation, ignoring the pain Jake was going through.

“See, to me, I just ‘defeated someone I am fifteen times older than in a game that means nothing to me’. It’s a light experience. To you however, it’s ‘I lost to a Century Demigod, one of the strongest beings in the planet, in a contest of strength’. Which sounds much more important right?” Jake got the idea, even though he still felt the pain.

“The importance of an experience is what can help bridge the gap between Demigods of vastly different ages, take Edgar for example, he has fought and defeated the most Gods out of anyone in Aegis, and the weight of his existence is so high that he is stronger than an Ancient Demigod like Shane.” Charlie reminded Jake about the strongest Demigod.

“Oh yeah… is it the same for Rose and the third ranked, mister Samuel?” Jake’s question was met with a nod by Charlie.

“Yeah… listen Jake, Demigods are innately very magical, we have huge supplies of mana and said mana only serves to increase our physical abilities and allow us to use magic. The more mana you have, the stronger you are, though control and skill with mana is a factor.” Charlie said, raising a fist and tapping the ground.

Rolling a bit due to the sudden shaking, Jake stared at the Century Demigod with fear at what just happened.

“Think about it. The strong people of this world all have had amazing experiences defining them to their current levels. You can also become one, but it will take many rich experiences before your mana comes close to mine, let alone a Council-members.” Charlie warned, seeing both caution and excitement in Jake’s eyes.

“I understand sir… last question before we continue sir, but these ‘experiences’ do they also explain why Demigods get stronger faster after fighting?” Jake’s question got a nod from Charlie.

Charlie wasn’t going to be explaining the mechanics of it, Jake could see the reluctance, and that was fine, because Jake had an idea on his own already, that the increase in growth was actually the increase in mana and the ‘growth’ was the body acclimatizing to the increase in mana.

Charlie was glad he didn’t have to mention ‘Chosen’. While it was still unconfirmed whether or not Jake was a Chosen, if he really was one, Charlie was sure that Jake would be powerful…

Chosen are those who live very interesting lives, and growing in power would follow obviously… Jake wasn’t strong.

Yet.

On a related note, the other Demigods of team Charlie were all looking like soulless husks after their training, and their trainers were just softly chuckling to themselves.

Team Charlie would be interesting…