"That's not real. That's just a hologram, its a practice mode for those who are battling against certain opponants." Gio reassured him.
"Oh…okay…" Juniper breathed. He was amazed by the technology, although he was still afraid of that giant thing.
There was another person in the arena with their contracted beast going up against the hologram. While another person stood further back recording data, he had the same uniform on as Gio had when they first met so Juniper assumed he must also be a beast trainer.
They watched the battle for a moment. The other beast attacked and the hologram countered with a move of its own. The two beasts fought for several minutes, each having multiple attempts at breaking the other.
As they were watching, the fight between the two beasts ended. The holographic beast collapsed into a pile of dust.
"You know, Juni, these holograms have some pretty realistic movements, It can seem real but don't worry they cant hurt you." Gio commented as he stepped closer.
Juniper glanced over at the screen and nodded. "Yeah, they're amazing."
Gio took a look at Juniper. He put his arm around the boy's shoulder and gave him a light squeeze. With the arm firmly around him, Juniper couldn't help but feel better.
"Come on, let me take you too see the rest" Gio said.
As they walked towards another room leading off from the arena, Juniper looked around at all the holograms that lined the walls. They ranged from things he would only know as mythical creatures like dragons, unicorns, and griffins to non-mythical ones such as dogs, cats, and horses. It was an impressive collection.
After walking through the next door, Juniper got his first glimpse of the gym. It was split into different sections. Unlike the holograms in the main arena, it was full of machines made for training. There were punching bags and endurance training machines while further forward there was pods with headsets near the end of the room, there were several rows of these ranging in size.
"This is my favorite part," Gio announced.
The pods were contained a virtual reality environment. When the pod activated, the wearer would enter whatever world they needed to train in. For example, if they wanted to go to a desert setting, they could. Or they could practice elemental abilities within the virtual reality. Whatever they chose to do, they'd be able to do it without leaving this area.
"I've been training here ever since I came to work here" Gio explained. "It's saved me so much time. You can even get special training programs for your beast or yourself."
Looking around Juniper saw a few people training as Gio led them deeper into the room. Most were wearing the same uniforms as Gio except that some wore black, others wore blue.
''If you ever are interested in raising a beast, even if its not for battle purposes, let me know I should be able to fix you up with your perfect match.'' Gio remarked.
Juniper thought for a moment ''I heard there are plant beasts?''
"Plant?" Gio tilted his head. "Why would you want to raise a plant beast?'
"Well, I have a plant ability. I guess…I've always wondered what it would be like to work with plants that were sentient. Especially if they could do things like help grow food."
"Ah well, if that's what you really want to do then we'll find something together, Ive never seen one myself as they are rather rare to find. I can take you out of Capital star to go to more remote planets there is a higher chance of finding one there that may accept a contract with you." Gio smiled.
Juniper felt a little embarrassed to have someone to rely on. "Thanks, Gio."
"Anytime, Juni."
"So how does this work?" Juniper turned back and asked as they continued past the pods.
"All you have to do is lay inside, put on the headset and press the button on the left side to boot up the virtual reality." Gio continued. ''You can come here to try it when we have more time, the military also have similar ones but theirs are more advanced.''
Juniper thought about whether he might need to visit the military again, Demetrius really helped him progress in his cultivation training. Maybe he could ask Demetrius later.
"Let's keep going," Gio suggested.