The test consisted of 50 questions pulled from a pool of thousands.
While Nick had been able to answer the first question, he quickly realized he might have been lucky.
'Well, biology isn't my strong suit,' Nick thought.
This test was about the biology of not only humans but also animals and plants.
Nick knew a lot about human biology, but he knew almost nothing about the other two.
After a while, Nick answered all the questions, and he immediately got his score.
'15 out of a hundred,' he thought. 'How did I even get an odd score with an even number of total questions? Do I get half points for partially correct answers, or do the questions give a different number of points?'
'Nevertheless, that's not even close to getting a point.'
Someone could earn up to three points per test based on the score.
30 out of a hundred gave one point.
60 gave two.
90 gave three.
There was no reward for getting a hundred percent, and the manual made that very clear.
The reason was that going from 90 to 100 points was far too much work for little benefit, and that was not what Aegis wanted from their trainees.
After someone reached 90 points, they should get to the next level and try to get 30 there.
Sometimes, perfection was not a good thing because it could cannibalize efficiency.
When he finished the test, Nick checked the other categories.
'Luckily, that was my worst field from all the ones here,' Nick thought. 'Might as well go with my second worst.'
Then, Nick clicked on Zephology.
Zephology was the study of Zephyx and Prephyx and how they interacted with the world.
One would expect that a former CZE would know a lot about Zephology, but that was actually not true.
Zephology was mainly about combining Zephyx with materials to create machines or equipment.
This was something for engineers and inventors like Ghosty.
Nick knew a bit about this, but not a lot.
However, when Nick saw his score, he was surprised.
'52 points?' Nick thought. 'That test was far easier than I expected. Sure, I only got 52 points, but that's my second worst category.'
'Am I just that bad at biology, or is this test just far easier?'
Nick shook his head. 'Doesn't matter. I'll just get to the next one.'
Next was physics, and Nick completed the test relatively quickly.
'74 points,' Nick thought with raised brows. 'These tests are far easier than I thought.'
After finishing three tests, Nick had already gained three points.
The number of points he could earn from here was crazy.
'Next, history,' Nick thought.
As he answered the questions, Nick realized that almost all questions referred to the current era.
There were just three questions that tangentially related to the past eras.
'28 points,' Nick thought with annoyance. 'I don't know a lot about history from this era.'
Instead of choosing the next category, Nick opened the level two test from history and was quickly confronted with a question about the Suffering Ones.
Nick smirked a bit and answered.
Nick had learned a lot about history from Julian and Aegis' database while being Crimson City's Liaison.
'It's probably too difficult to gain access to knowledge about the past eras,' Nick thought while answering questions.
After a while, he finished the level two test of history, and he was much more confident this time.
'62 points,' Nick thought with a smirk. 'That's six points!'
Since the level two tests were far more difficult than the level one tests, they also gave far more points.
Getting a score of 30 gave three points, 60 gave six, and 90 gave nine.
Level three tests were even crazier, giving ten, twenty, and thirty.
'I should also attempt the level three test,' Nick thought.
It took a long time for him to answer the questions, but in the end, he received his score.
'21 points,' Nick thought with a sigh. 'It seems like my lack of knowledge in other fields is pulling down my history score.'
The level three history questions talked about specific things like past technology, which also required advanced knowledge in Zephology.
Luckily, Nick managed to answer a couple of the questions thanks to his vast knowledge of another category, which he hadn't tested yet.
'Next, warfare,' Nick thought as he clicked on the warfare category.
Warfare, in this context, referred to group battles.
Extractors against other Extractors.
Several Extractors against one Specter.
Several Extractors against several Specters.
Stuff like that.
Nick was quite confident in that category since he had been in many battles and had to create many parties to capture Specters.
Dark Dream's losses had been very low, which meant that Nick couldn't have been that bad at warfare.
Also, once more, Julian had been a treasure trove of knowledge.
When Nick finished the test, he smirked.
'93 points,' he thought.
Yet, he immediately shook his head to get rid of the smirk.
'Don't get comfortable. These are tests for children. There's no value in feeling pride about these accomplishments,' Nick thought with furrowed brows.
Nick clicked on the second level of warfare and started answering.
'96 points,' Nick thought without emotion after finishing the test.
How had Nick scored even better in the second level than the first?
Because the second level mostly dealt with battles against Specters, while the first one mainly dealt with human battles.
After finishing the second level, Nick went to the third level.
He had been quite confident, but his confidence took a severe hit very quickly.
All of these questions included the abilities of Specialists, Heroes, and even Protectors.
Nick could answer a couple of the questions, but he wasn't sure about his answers.
'24 points,' Nick thought. 'Barely missed. The third-level tests are insane.'
Nick had been typing away on the console for several hours now, but he didn't feel exhausted.
Compared to his job as CZE or Liaison, this was essentially a vacation.
It was even almost fun.
'Halfway done. Next, psychology.'
Nick was confident in psychology due to his troubles over the decades and his job.
Naturally, as CZE and Liaison, he had to know how people thought and how they would react.
However, Nick encountered a problem with the questions.
'Many of these questions are asking about words for specific actions and thinking patterns. I know what they all do, but I've never officially learned them, which means I don't know the correct terminology for most of these things.'
In the end, Nick only got 68 points.
Nevertheless, he went to the second level, but it didn't get any better.
42 points.
Yet, Nick still attempted the third level, and he was positively surprised.
48 points!
The reason for the score was that the third level mostly gave complex scenarios and asked Nick to predict what certain people would do and why.
Essentially, the third level wasn't asking about the terms but tested the trainees actual experience in the field and if they had properly understood the concepts.
'The first time I got points from the third level,' Nick thought.
Then, Nick looked at the four remaining categories.
His four best categories.
'Mathematics!'
Nick had learned a lot about mathematics inside the Big Brain Slug's labyrinth.
However, as Nick started to answer the questions, he took longer and longer.
The reason was that there were no easy ways to solve these equations.
At least, according to his knowledge.
'It's very possible that there are ways to simplify these equations, but I don't know them. I have to calculate all of them the hard way.'
In essence, Nick had to come up with his own way of solving these equations, which put a lot of pressure on his mind.
Hours passed.
Days passed.
Yet, halfway through the test, Nick clicked on cancel, destroying all of his efforts.
'I can't waste so much time just on math,' he thought with frustration. 'I actually have to earn points to stay here. I can deal with the math in my free time.'
So, Nick went to the next category.
Leadership.
Leadership was a field mixed from many different fields.
Psychology, economics, warfare, history.
Nick charged through the questions, not even needing to think about the answer.
'100, 80, 64,' Nick thought while reading his scores for the three levels.
Nick had been in charge of other people for his entire adult life, and he had managed an entire company while it was growing more and more powerful.
Even on the third level, he had been certain of almost all of his answers, and he believed that most of the cases in the third test were based on opinion rather than objective truth.
His score wasn't high enough to earn all of the points, but he also didn't believe that he was wrong.
'Two more categories,' Nick thought before looking at the next category.
He had to suppress a smirk of confidence.
Wasn't this the thing he had dealt with for the past five years?
'Economics.'