After a few seconds of silence between them, Adam finally heard Dr Fidelis' voice come through the earpiece. He had been worried, for a moment or two, about the length it had taken. The timing had been all wrong.

*I see, that the two of you are getting yourself focused up*, Dr Fidelis excitedly said, through the earpiece. *Does this mean that you are both ready, with your lack of conversation?*

Adam was certainly ready himself. In fact, he had been ready for quite a long time. Maybe, in the future, he should set a timer for five minutes after the initial connection. Seeing the time it was taken today, it didn't sound too unrealistic to wait such a long time, before connecting fully back.

'Im ready.', Adam sent to Dr Fidelis, as was customary.

“I am as ready, as I possibly can, right now”, Troy stated, making a slight repeat from the last test. Adam had been interested in this statement, since the first time he heard it.

From the 'possibly can', he had presumed it to be a simple case of over-exaggeration. Yet, when he looked through the body analysis, he saw that Troy fully believed his own words. Adam didn't believe him capable of lying, due to earlier evidence around that same time.

So, how was this possible? Adam was only able to find one solution, as to how, Troy was able to say such a thing, while not lying in any kind of way. In essence, his statement was certainly true. In that specific time, with his specific mindset, he would not be able to be any more ready, than he was. But, he also wouldn't be able to be any less ready, than he already was.

This would then lead into a theory about, how free will was perceived by Troy, but Adam was still not too sure, that any of this had any basis in reality, and was therefore scrapped. Truthfully, he was only able to grasp, that Troy believed himself to be true in his words. If this was because of a lack of sleep, causing his brain to not realise the words actually said, or if his worldview was just that twisted, Adam wouldn't know for now. Soon, though, it should have been attainable.

*Excellent*, Dr Fidelis loudly proclaimed, after only a second of delay, from Troy ending his own sentence. *With that, I'm jumping right into this test's explanation.

If one wanted to be technical about it all, the last three tests, this one included, have all been part of a bigger picture. They are all connected, in the way, that they are created, and the way they are shown off.

As before, you, Adam, will still have the task of describing the things you see, describe how they look, how they work, and, most importantly, for this test only, how the creatures interact with each other.

The first test was simply the environment. The test after that was how the creatures worked with their environment. This test will be how the different species interact with each other.

As you have likely already guessed, these interactions will change greatly, depending on the type of environment, which they reside in. I would strongly encourage you to describe how these change the circumstances, in detail.

Troy. You will have the easy job of writing down Adam's description, just like the earlier ones. This time, though, we will politely ask you, to read through the answers, before sending them in. While few in numbers, there was still a noticeable amount of grammar errors in these texts. Since Adam is sending them to you in verbal form, these errors are at the fault of yourself.

In this test, we would be more than happy, if none of these errors occurs. If unsure on the rightness of your spelling, please ask Adam for assistance, in this task. I am sure, that he would be more than happy, in helping you.

With all this said, you two should be plenty prepared to begin the test. The environment, and the things associated with it, will be formed around you, in the moment, where our connection is cut.

So… bye!-*

With a sharp click, the white-noise of Dr Fidelis background was not heard any more, replaced with the softer breathing of Troy. Seeing at the stress levels, Adam saw they had fallen in the last two minutes. He thought Dr Fidelis would be the instigator of their increase and not their decrease. Again, though, Adam had been proved wrong.

Abusive superiors were pulled off the culprit list. Only a few remained. Adam didn't like that, not having the largest clue, what the true answer was. He hoped the process of elimination would be able to shed more light on it.

Without further delay, the white space became distorted, filling itself with colour, from seemingly nowhere. In the last two startups, Adam had been trying to figure out, where it all started up. Every time, it seemed to have come from behind Troy's head, spreading in from the sides. Yet, no matter what position they were in, he was unable to find the true source of colour.

Adam was beginning to think that it had the same, unfulfilled design, of the first test sound system, with the origin being shifted, so the recipient wouldn't be able to observe it. While it did add intrigue, it was baseless, and, thus, annoying to be in the presence of.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

In the start of the last two tests, an environment containing forests or just trees, in general, had been a regular starter. Adam theorized it was designed to grant some initial familiarity, before stepping out into the more unique environments, which were much harder to describe, without being overly abstract. He wasn't too happy about this design either. While some would have preferred to have the easy questions at the start, Adam thought it better to throw the easy part away from the get-go.

If they were easy to describe, they had no part in these test, which were thought to be designed to challenge Adam, and help find his limits, his weaknesses, and his strong points. That's how he used it himself, at the very least. And, it was a very effective method of self-study, seeing how long each question too him to answer.

Yet, he was forced to not use the first few questions as sensible data. They were just too easy to complete, giving an accurate estimate of the level of difficulty in the next environments. By making the initial locations harder, and on the same base level as the others, it would allow Adam to gain more, usable data, in the same amount of time.

Now that he thought about it, there was a chance, that the easier environments weren't meant for Adam. They were meant to adjust Troy. He could still remember the momentary fear, which had been felt when the first ocean environment had been started. By keeping it overground, in a slightly familiar environment, there was a decent chance, that it helped Troy realise the simulated part of the test's description.

Such reasoning might not have been the best, though, seeing as Troy's current reaction was anything but calm.

“I will never get used to this”, Troy muttered, cracking his knuckles in a calming manner. “This is just too abstract to look at.”

Calling it all abstract was not too far from the truth. Adam would even have called it the same thing if he was in Troy's shoes.

Instead of bubbling up from the ground, after the initial splashing of colours, the spheres seemingly came out from non-existence. In a three-dimensional grid, with about a meter between them, the sphere slowly grew. At first, they were incredibly hard to make out, being smaller than a centimetre in radius.

This didn't stay for long, though. Progressively, they grew their size a hundredfold. While this happened, their movement wasn't static. Some would compress together, travelling mere meters before stopping. Others speed-dived into the ground, spreading out to form… something. It wasn't grass. It was too flat, to be called a thing such a thing. It was nearing the liquid state of flatness, caused by the gravity holding it as such.

Yet, there still were small hills, if one could accurately call it as such, in the liquid. They were not incredibly tall, being only half a meter at the largest.

As the other details of the environment formed, Adam began to have a better grasp on, what was before him. While the lacklustre colours didn't reveal anything too blatant, context helped him on.

The trees formed seamlessly, the inner cylinder briefly shown before the details sprung out. It was like a wave, ending in the formation of low hanging branches, dull leaves, ready to fall out, and the small creaking, as the finalized trees settled in position. Adam thought it weird, that such a noise was made, but chalked it off, as an error in the starting process.

From the liquid, serving as the base of the environment, smaller bushes sprung forth. They only just settled over the liquid, yet, Adam could see they reached far below the depts. From his singular perspective, the water looked too much deeper, than it originally looked to be, having a minimum of two whole meters.

At this point, nearly everything had been fully created. But, there was still one thing lacking.

Coming from above, the colours of the environment fell. They would ricochet off another part of the environment, before finally settling down on their respective places, seeping into the material, and giving it its designated colour scheme.

With it all put together, Adam was finally able to conclude the type of environment, which they would be starting with.

A swamp.

While it was far, from the most unique places, that had been shown in these tests, it was definitely the farthest outplacement, of the first few environments.

The trees were still standing there, so it had not abandoned the general aesthetic by too large an amount. Still, Adam was having trouble seeing any large kind of landmass. While groups of dirt and moss were floating around, he didn't think any larger creatures capable of learning floating on such things.

Actually, with the water seeming so deep, he was trying to figure out exactly, how the trees were surviving. The root systems must have been flooded with excess water, at this point. How were they getting oxygen?

'Please make a full, three sixty degree, turn, so it will be possible, to have a clearer picture of the environment.', Adam requested of Troy. It was a surprise he had not done so, already. Troy usually did so, of his own volition, and likely curiosity as well, when the different environments were being loaded in. Then again, such behaviour was most prominent, further into the testing times, so he shouldn't be too surprised by this stillness in normal movement.

After Troy did as requested, with no complaints to note, Adam was able to have a broader idea of what was before him. This, unfortunately, did not equate to a better understanding of what was in front of them, though.

With how the environment was currently set up, the forest life, and the bushes close to them, should have long since died out. Such large amounts of water should not be survivable, for any extended amount of time.

With the average depth of the water, the trees should not even have been able to grow at all. If one, for the sake of an argument, forwent how fast these trees would certainly drown, they wouldn't be able to mature either.

The sun simply wouldn't be able to reach them, in the depths. Even with multiple edits to the input gained through Troy's eyes, seeing the bottom had been hard. Extremely hard. Adam was sure that Troy himself wouldn't have been able to notice it, even if the task had been focused on. No, it had been through a large quantity of data, that he had been able to average out the water depth of the area, without the normally required vision.

And, without this precious sunlight getting through to the bottom, aspiring trees would simply be unable to use their normal methods of energy processing, making them wither before ever having the chance to grow.

Now that he had gotten a better look at the surroundings, Adam had noticed another small detail. The bushes. They weren't truly connected to the ground. No, it seemed like they had been… ripped off? Not with any sharp instrument, but with brute-forced. Broken branches were prevalent on these small things.

These bushes would soon die. The water around them was simply delaying the inevitable.

This told Adam one important thing. The current state of the environment was not what it usually was. While there might have been some level of water, the current amount was unnatural. Nothing would be able to live in it for long.

Telling, the state of the bushes was. Broken by force, and forced to be on the surface of new water. It was obvious to see, what the cause of this ripping had been.

For some reason, the water levels had grown exponentially. Calling it a doubling would be too kind. There were at least four times the amount of water, then what was usually here. It had torn up everything, that wasn't quite literally anchored deep into the ground. This meant the trees were likely one of the few remaining survivors. And, they wouldn't remain in such a position for much longer, if the current situation did not change drastically.

But, then, what had caused it to change so much, in the first place? What created such excess of water, to suddenly appear?