The feeling of entering an illusion really was a unique thing. It was as if you got pulled through a thick veil slightly dulling all your senses ever so slightly.
Once Jay opened his eyes, a strange feeling engulfed him, it was as if he was full of, and didn't have any, energy at the same time. The reason for this was simple, illusions such as this didn't simulate stamina.
He knew that in reality, he was probably floating somewhere in the void, completely unconscious.
Laying his thoughts to rest he had a look at the room he was in, it was a rather nostalgic feeling being back in the test.
The room he woke up in was relatively large, it had a straw bed in which he was sitting and a chest in the corner of the room, furthermore, there was a small closet across from him holding some clothes and painting depicting a gory battle hanging above his bed.
And just as he stood up a notification sounded within his head.
Mission 1 initiated: Defend the village|
After getting this notification Jay calmly headed towards the box within the room, it was filled with a wide range of miscellaneous items. From bandages to spices to a rubber ball. In the end, he just took the sword which was badly hidden behind the box.
Other than this there really wasn't anything too useful, the only other weapon here was a bow under the bed but since the string was about to break and it was made out of the wrong type of wood.
After putting on the nicest and most practical clothes he could find he headed out the door. Yet when he got outside he simply stood still in front of his house, his hands visibly shaking. It was only now that he started to truly realize he had reincarnated, that he got a second shot at life.
An old man that was just passing by noticed the shaking of his hands and approached slightly worried.
"No need to be so scared young general, I'm sure you all will repel those bandits with ease."
However, once he said these words, Jay's shoulders started shaking even more before he raised his head laughing loudly. "Old man, don't you worry. I'll kill every single one of those bastards!"
'How fun.....how exhilarating...'
After taking a short moment to calm down he started walking to the middle of this town. The town wasn't all that large having around 300 inhabitants, with a military of just 50 men total. The inhabitants seemed to be in a relatively good state with a decent amount of people living to their 60s.
Now since this was just an illusion, most of the people here could be considered absolute idiots. For example, a blacksmith wouldn't know even know the tiniest bit about tannery and a soldier wouldn't know anything other than how to fight.
The bandits that would attack the town would also number 50. The problem was that the townsfolk wouldn't prove even the tiniest bit of help. Dumping some rocks over the walls would probably be the most they could do.
So, since the bandits vastly outskilled the town's militia, this was a rather tough fight.
If they let the militia fight them head-on there would surely still be 20 bandits remaining who could then easily slaughter most of the town.
In his last life, he decided to ambush the enemies at night, he fought in the front line, in the end the casualties were about even with both camps having about 20 fighters left before the bandits retreated. The score he got was high but it had put him on the path of an adventurer.
A bit later he reached the town's barracks, other then the city hall this was the largest building in the town, it was a rectangular building about a twenty meters in length. Currently, about a dozen soldiers were chatting. Each of these had barebones equipment, about half of the weapons were simple stone spears and only a few people had armor. It was clear that they wouldn't be all too amazing in a fight.
After walking to the end of the room he approached another door. Behind this door were the 3 other generals. The first was a young man in his late twenties who was yelling at the other generals, saying they should go and fight the bandits head-on.
The second general was a woman of about 40 who wore a dark cloak that concealed her face. She wanted to ambush the bandits when they settled down for the night, trying to get an edge that way.
The third general was an old man who seemed to have a really bad temper, he wanted to start evacuating the citizens immediately, and defend the city walls until all the civilians had made it out alive.
In between them, there was a large map of the city and the surroundings with a few points highlighted. It seemed like the bandits were only about 3 hours away but they were expected to make a temporary camp soon. After all, no sane commander would attack when the men are already exhausted from walking.
This test was the same for anyone who entered the rifts and generally the person within the test would choose to follow one of the Generals. Then they would get a number of 'quests' doing things which would help defeat the bandits.
In his last life, he had followed the female General, the quests consisted of things such as finding dark sets of clothing to help mask the troops, get intelligence on the enemy troops and learning basic sword or spear fighting. Each of these only had a limited time to be completed before they would be failed which would cause the rating to go down.
As expected, after the trio noticed him the old man turned to him.
"General Collin, what do you think we should do?"
Such general dialogue, it certainly had been a long time since he had to work with someone this idiotic. Without a word, Jay looked at the trio sternly before walking up to the map.
There were in truth a multitude of ways to get a Lord's rating, some were quite easy but those were also bound to give weaker ratings. He had heard a few ways to get a D or C Lord rank rating. One of which was to send some soldiers at night to disturb the beast king in the eastern forest, then they would run into the enemies camp, causing them as well as the soldiers guiding the beast to perish.
Another way was to fight a war of attrition. Using the night to get some trees chopped and reinforce the walls and gates while shooting at the enemies with arrows. In truth, this was the plan Jay was planning to go with but he couldn't help but give it a good thought as getting a better ranking initially could help you get a massive head start.
As he looked at the map carefully he took note of a few things. Other then the Beast King in the east, there was also a beast king in the west and a volcano with a rumored 'mythical-level monster' in the north. With the Town being in the far south. Furthermore, there was also a dam built North-West of where the Bandits were resting.
For a moment Jay was speechless, after all, all these things were so easy to find and utilize. How hadn't he noticed last time around?! After a moment of silent thinking, Jay finally spoke up.
"Let's attack them when the moon is at it's highest point. Attack them when they are unprepared"
A mysterious smile made its way onto his mouth. This night, 50 bandits would die, while there would be no casualties on their side. Of this, he was already sure.