Dr. Lu begun typing vigorously at his computer with Dr. Kolten standing behind him taking notes. After a few minutes of typing, Dr. Lu finally shared whatever he was doing.
"It seems the young man's shield drained the energy that was used to create the bullet." Dr. Lu stated.
"How do you feel?" Dr. Kolten asked Caden.
"I feel fine, although the sense of emptiness that comes with the shield vanished for a few seconds." Caden replied.
"Interesting, so your shield drains the energy of an enemies attack and makes it yours. That's great." Dr. Kolten said as he continued writing in his notepad.
The hatch at the bottom opened up as the dummy fell in, then the arena began to shift from pentagonal shape to spherical and increased slightly in size.
"Please stand in the middle of the arena." Dr. Ben said.
Caden walked to the center of the arena. Once there, a glass wall rose to cover every part of the arena before connecting to the roof of the arena. Caden couldn't see what was on the other side of the glass but the people outside could see into it.
[Versatility test initiated]
Caden heard a mechanical voice say as the environment around him started to shift. Before he knew it, he found himself in a forest. He started to look around the forest when the ceiling above him opened and a dummy fell to the floor. With the dummy was a pistol, the same one he had used.
[Objective: Protect ally until the time is up]
A heavy fog begun to roll in from all sides. Caden quickly moved closer to the dummy and activated his shield through the device which the scientists had left with him. The fog impacted the shield and surrounded him on all sides.
Caden felt a slow and slight increase in his energy reserves as the fog surrounded him. Soon, Caden started to hear a slight humming as a timer started above him.
3:00
He had three minutes. As soon as he came to this conclusion something slammed into the shield as he felt a surge of energy. Then, he saw four drons hovering around. The drones moved swiftly, using the fog to disguise themselves as they circled him.
Another heavy impact was felt as he felt another surge. Then he spun around and fired a shot which managed to land on a drone going cleanly through it as it exploded.
Outside, the scientists were watching him go through the versatility test and Dr. Kolten was writing into his notepad while paying rapt attention to the arena.
"It seems our data was a little off. His offense and defense capabilities are a level higher than what the tests suggested and he seems to be adapting pretty well. Even the sniper drones aren't doing much other than giving him energy. I sense a new prodigy in our midst." Dr. Kolten said as he kept on writing.
Inside, Caden had just taken down his third drone when he felt a larger than most impact. A small crack appeared in his shield but it slowly repaired itself. Caden wasn't so lucky as he dropped to his knees due to the sudden surge of energy. His reserves were brought back up and beyond, to the point where his body couldn't handle it well.
To get rid of the excess energy, he started blind firing into the surroundings and somehow hit the final drone and destroyed it. More drones appeared in the fog and just like before, they started circling the shield while using the fog to hid their actual locations.
The drones were in fact firing at the shield but the energy they provided was negligible. His main concern was whatever it was beyond the fog that was causing the powerful impacts. If they kept up like this, his body would be ripped apart by the excess energy.
Before he knew it, three minutes had passed in this fashion. He had destroyed three waves of drones while trying his very best not to die to his excess energy.
The terrain started shifting again but instead of appearing on a new map, he appeared in the arena but the glass wall remained. He let out a sigh of relief but before he could do anything, he heard the voice of Dr. Ben.
"Whatever you do, do not turn that shield off, it's the only thing keeping you alive right now. We had to cut the test short because your body is at its literal limit." Dr. Ben said in an urgent voice.
"We're going to move you to the next two tests then you'll be on your way, we hope by that time that your energy levels have reduced." Dr. Lu added.
Still inside the arena, the environment within changed again and suddenly, he was in a large desert area. Opposite the desert area was a large tower filled with water. In between these two areas was a very large chasm with no way to go around.
[Creativity and survivability tests initiated simultaneously]
[Objective (creativity): Create a way across the chasm and stop the water tower from falling down]
[Objective (Survival): Survive for a month in a hostile desert using only the resources available around you]
[Time limit for both objectives is a month]
"Wait what, am stuck in here for a month?" Caden asked nobody in particular.
After a few minutes of doing nothing, he finally made a smart decision. He was going to complete the creativity test first so that the survival test would be easier.
Caden looked at the empty desert around him. All that was around him for miles were just pure desert sand and stones, some large some small. Finally he found what he was looking for. Cacti and dead wood off in the distance.