Theo got directions from Gehenna about where the training room is temporarily.

  “Hey Gehenna, when are you going to start expanding your domain?” Theo asked.

  “In a week's time, you plus everyone besides the specters can’t be here while the expansion is going on due to the fact that there will be no air or atmosphere,” Gehenna said.

  “Give me a ballpark of how long it will take you to expand the planetoid to the size of Jupiter,” Theo said.

  “Unfortunately, I cannot. I am skipping many steps. Usually, a genius locorum grows a planetoid slowly, but I’m going to do it all at once, so who knows?” Gehenna said with a mental shrug.

  “Fair enough,” Theo said.

  As he walked into the training room, it was weird, coming from stone walls to a solid gunmetal gray room. And at this point, it was becoming standard that, from any room created by the system, there was no light source anywhere, yet the room was still visible. There were chairs, five on each side of the walls. For the chairs themselves, they're like the chairs you’ll see in a dentist’s office before the integration.

  “Good afternoon, Theo,” the robotic voice of the system said.

  It emanated from the room; Theo couldn’t pinpoint its source.

  “So how does this work?” Theo asked.

  “Sit down in the chair; a helmet will appear from the back and be placed on your head, and you’ll enter a virtual reality. Don’t worry; muscle memory will transfer over to your real body,” the system said.

  “Out of curiosity, could you create constructs for people to fight instead of using virtual reality?” Theo asked.

  “I can, but by using constructs, it is more resource-intensive on Gehenna and me. In my scenarios, I don’t hold back; you can die in them, and it will be a pain for Gehenna to bring you back constantly. So a training room in virtual reality can simulate egregious wounds and death to get you used to being pseudo-immortal, which is a lot more cost-effective.”

  “Makes sense,” Theo said.

  As he walked up to one of the chairs and sat down, he found it pretty comfortable. The helmet slid onto his head. All his senses went black for a second; then the next thing he knew, he was standing in a white void.

  “What would you like to fight or what scenario would you like to do?” the system said.

  A list of options appeared in front of Theo via a system message. There were lists of monsters of various kinds, as well as scenarios like King of the Hill, Battle Royale, skirmishes between monsters and people, and much more.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “This is just a trial run, so something simple,” Theo said.

  The list shrank drastically. Theo looked over the new list and saw he could fight a monster one-on-one. Each time he beat the monster, he could leave or increase the difficulty until he lost. Theo chose that one.

  “What monster would you like to face?” Theo asked.

  A list popped up in front of him.

  “Surprise me,” Theo said, and the list disappeared.

  “Will do,” the system said.

  The white void changed into an arena. The stands were empty. Theo was standing on one side, while on the other, his opponent looked more like a crocodile. The man was bipedal, but his head was crocodile-like, and he had a tail. The skin also looked like a crocodile's. It wore furs and held an ax. The ax itself was a one-handed ax; the blade was a crescent moon shape, and the blade itself was half the width of the shaft, protecting the wielder's hand.

  Theo summoned his cane sword; it worked here as it would in real life. And since he did not have his chains, he was going to focus on the training he had received from learning under Ty. Getting into a fighting stance, his left foot was forward, his knees bent slightly, his right arm in front of him holding the cane sword, and his body angled so that only his right side faced forward. The crocodile man, the construct, charged at him with its ax in hand, ready to cleave him in two. Theo was ready. As the crocodile man got into striking range, Theo parried the ax and punched the construct in the stomach as it rushed past him. The crocodile man turned towards him with a snarl. It stalks towards Theo in a hostile manner with its ax held in a guard position. Then, once the crocodile man got to Theo, the construct went from a guard to a swipe in the blink of an eye. Theo took a step back, then stepped to his right and went in for a swipe towards the crocodile man's torso with his ax. It knocked away Theo’s sword. Theo saw that the crocodile man was about to follow up with its ax. Theo took a step back and assumed a guard position. As the construct came in for another attack, Theo parried it again and went in for another, but the construct blocked it. This back-and-forth action happened for a while until Theo went in for a lunging strike. The construct used its ax to block it, but this time the construct angled it so the blade would be between the shaft and the crescent blade. With a twist of its wrist and a jerking motion, the construct unarmed Theo. The cane sword fell to the ground between the crocodile man and Theo. Theo took a step back; the crocodile man was grinning at Theo with all its teeth. Theo grinned back, unsummoned the cane sword, and resummoned it back in his hand. When that happened, the construct scowled and charged Theo again. Another couple of minutes passed, and they exchanged blows back and forth. Neither Theo nor the crocodile man gained the upper hand. Theo, at this point, was starting to pant, sweat glistening from his brow. His back was soaked. He was impressed with how well the virtual reality could emulate real life. In that moment, he decided to finish the battle quickly because he wasn’t sure how much longer he would last. Theo stepped aside, and the construct’s guard was wide open. With a fluid strike across the crocodile man's left back leg, the construct stumbled. Theo capitalized on that, pivoted towards his left, and started pushing the crocodile man. The construct was limping, panic on its face; all it could do was defend itself. This went on for half a minute until the construct made a mistake in its defense. Theo capitalized on it by striking at its chest and delivering a fatal blow. The construct dissipated into a thousand particles. Theo was gasping for breath, his entire body soaked in sweat. From the training he received from Ty, he now has the muscle memory and skill to use the knowledge he gained from the skill book before the tutorial during the battle; he did not take a single wound. He was thoroughly pleased with his newfound skill in swordplay he had a long way to go to master the sword.

  “That was fun,” Theo thought.

  A prompt appeared in front of his face:

  Would you like to start another bout?

  Yes or no.

  Theo hit no.

  With that, the space around him turned back into the white void.

  “Would you like to do something else, or are you done for today?” the system asked.

  “I am done for today, thank you,” Theo said.

  Theo awoke as the helmet was retracting from his head. Getting up out of the chair, Theo stretched, and he was taken aback for a second to realize he was no longer drenched in sweat.

  “That is pretty handy, a full workout, and I do not have to take a shower afterward. This virtual reality room is awesome, well, I guess I should check to see where Grace is, and to see if my friends are still here,” Theo thought with a smile.

  Asking Gehenna, “Can you please tell me where Grace is, and also, are my friends still here?”

  “She’s getting new gear, and for your friends, they left a while ago,” Gehenna said.

  “Too bad, well anyway. Alright, I’ll start heading that way to the armory.” Theo said

  It didn’t take long for Theo to get to the armory, seeing Grace's smiling face, checking out all the weapons and armor that were displayed in this giant room.

  “Uncle, Theo! This place is amazing!” Grace said excitedly.

  “Yes, this place is amazing, but unfortunately, Gehenna is going to expand its domain in a week, so we have to go to Earth in a week,” Theo said

  “I'd rather go there today or tomorrow because the sooner we go, the sooner we’ll get out of that mountain range and the faster I can find my friends,” Grace said

  “Fine, will go tomorrow,” Theo said with a huff.