Alex trained some more with Athena, and he always 'almost' landed an attack on her.

Unfortunately, she always miraculously dodged at the very last moment and his plans were unsuccessful.

After that bout of losses, Alex went back home.

He sweated a lot today, so his first destination was the bathhouse. He also had a special event coming up tomorrow, so he needed to feel and look his very best.

He undressed and got into the steaming pool. As he submerged his body and face into the hot waters of the bath, he felt the tension in his body disappearing.

'As it turns out, flying with large wings isn't exactly the best for the spine...' Alex lamented.

He put those thoughts aside and relaxed.

The waters of the bathhouse here in Hermes' place used to feel a bit too hot in the past but with his increase in heat tolerance, the temperature felt just perfect.

As a deity, even if he didn't regularly bathe, his hygiene somewhat maintained itself, but his old habits from Earth still made their way here.

He recently made a recipe for rustic shampoo.

It was very simple.

He mixed olive oil, coarse salt, rhodium(1), and the juice of a lemon.

He added in an egg yolk to emulsify the oils and water-based components, and Voilà!

The gods all somehow had beautiful hair without using any shampoo, but for tomorrow, Alex would indulge.

He washed his hair with the mixture and cleaned his body, and then he left the bath.

The warm bath made him drowsy, and he slept as soon as he put his head on the heavenly pillow.

_______________________________

*Chirp* *Chirp*

The cacophony of morning birds and the bright rising sun woke Alex up, and he started his day.

After performing his hygienic rituals, he found Hermes awake.

Following his negotiations with Zeus, Hermes lived like an unemployed man for all of these months and he seemed to really be enjoying it.

Before this, every single one of his actions felt anxious and fast, but now, he took the time to appreciate the small things.

On one of his past trips, he imported a very large quantity of chamomile tea, and he seemed to be addicted to the drink.

"I don't understand how you can handle the bitter and astringent taste..." Alex commented.

Hermes chuckled and replied, "You have the tastes of a child, Alexei-boy, grow up."

"Oh wait, you are a child!" Hermes mocked him.

Alex didn't have any counter-attack, as he was really too young compared to literally all of the deities.

Hermes then asked him, "You're waiting for them?"

Alex nodded nervously, as he stared in a certain direction.

There was something he wanted to do before Crista came.

"Can you help me with forging, Hermes?" Alex requested.

Hermes thought over it for a second and accepted, "Just to see what wonder you'll be making, I'll help."

Alex remembered that Hermes brought him the materials for the camera long ago and they were just sitting around in his room.

At first, he wanted to produce a pinhole camera, as it was the easiest one for his skills at the time.

But now, as his craftsmanship reached incredible lens, he felt like a lens camera might be within the realm of possibility.

To make the lens, he collected some fine river sand from a tributary of the Aliakmonas river, that navigated around Olep and Olympus.

With the help of Hermes, reaching the temperatures to melt the fine sand into glass was plausible.

For the frame of the camera, he would use bronze metal.

Bronze was made of a combination of copper and tin, and the former was the easiest to get as it was readily available.

The latter, however, was in an extreme shortage and even Hermes only had a limited quantity of it.

To make up for it, Alex would craft Hermes a desired object in the future.

Alex ignited the coal furnace in the kitchen, which had also become a forging workshop, and the flames ignited and blazed.

They were absolutely not yet at the melting point temperatures of copper, nor tin.

Alex and Hermes fanned the flames aggressively and they increased in intensity and brightness.

"Now!" Alex inserted the bucket with the metals into the furnace and looked on as the two metals turned bright red.

Soon enough, they melted and the distinct components formed a homogenous alloy.

The advantage of bronze over pure copper was that it did not rust and oxidize easily, and was more resistant and durable.

He took out the bucket and spilled the viscous metal onto his work surface, the anvil.

The inside of the frame should be hollow, so he would make separate bronze plates and then mold them together.

With his craftsmanship, his eye for detail and measurement as precise as an industrial machine, and he finished 5 of the 6 required plates in an instant.

One of the plates had an open slit, where the photosensitive screen would be inserted.

For the 6th, he needed to make space for the lens in the center, and to do so, he simply inserted a heavy and oiled tube into the center of the molten metal and shaped the metal plate before allowing it to cool down.

When this was over, he assembled the 6 plates into a cube shape and placed them in the furnace.

Now came the hard part, the lens.

Glassworking required more attention and work than metallurgy, but Alex hoped he could manage.

He put the sand in the burning hot furnace and waited for it to turn into mineral glass.

He didn't have the proper tools for this, so he couldn't work with extremely high temperatures which would practically render the sand into a thin liquid.

To get the class into the convex lens shape, he used a chilled metal spoon.

The spoon would act as both a mold and cool down the exposed side of the glass so he could work on the other side.

He made some measurements earlier to make sure everything would be the right size, and he was confident this would be successful.

Alex carefully grabbed the bucket and looked at the red crystalline mixture within.

He had to be extremely delicate with it, or it could break and this entire endeavor would be a failure.

He gently poured the molten glass into the spoon and stabilized its center of gravity so nothing would spill over.

*Ssssssssss*

The glass made sizzling sounds as it came into contact with the freezing spoon.

The layer of steam produced by the heat would not only allow him to more easily get the glass out, but it would also more evenly mellow out the shape.

After a few minutes, it seemed like that side of the glass was cool enough.

However, he had to be careful with the other side, which had also slightly cooled down and could potentially break.

He very very delicately took out the glass and observed the smooth texture, congratulating himself internally.

He placed the other side in another chilled spoon that was the exact same size as the one from earlier.

'Using cutlery for glassworking? If an expert from the modern era saw this, they would time travel and murder me....'

Fortunately, that was impossible.

Alex waited patiently for the second side of the lens to stabilize and then carefully got it out.

The lens was smooth all around and translucent.

"It's a success..." Alex exclaimed.

Now came the assembly and the moment of truth.