Jacob opened his eyes as he lay on his back on the hardwood floor of a familiar room.
Familiar in a bad way.
He stared up at a chandelier that illuminated the gentle darkness of the mansion foyer.
That right.
Jacob had awoken back in the haunted mansion from his nightmare trial.
He jumped to his feet quickly, amping his overclock to 5x in the same movement.
His eyes took in the mansion foyer as he searched for the all too familiar spirits that had almost killed him so many times.
After a couple of seconds of whipping his head around while listening intently, he relented and reduced his overclock to 1.5x.
It seemed safe for the moment but there was no way in hell he was letting his guard down.
After confirming there wasn't any immediate danger, he took a better look at the foyer.
It was the same as he had left it. The old chandelier hung auspiciously from the ceiling, the hardwood floors and carved wall-embedded support beams emanated class, and the darkness still crept in from every nook and cranny. Dancing on the walls and floors as shadows were cast by the flickering candlelight.
But it wasn't totally the same.
For one the lamps that had lit the second floor were without power, making the chandelier the only source of light in the room.
Secondly, the doors were different.
The doors that he could originally access, like the dining room, no longer had doorknobs.
Provided things were the same as the first time he had been here that meant he could no longer access them.
Another change was that the entrance to the mansion now existed. Well, he couldn't open it as it didn't have a doorknob or handle, but it was no longer a solid wall like in the nightmare trial.
But the most obvious change was in the atmosphere of the mansion.
It was as if someone had changed an inaudible background music on the whole place.
The silent stillness was no longer an unnatural and jarring affront to the living. It was a calming tranquillity, a sense of safety and comfort that came from the lack of noise.
The darkness no longer held the same horrific music it used to. It gave the impression of a lullaby, the dancing shadows that used to form sinister shapes were now playful.
The coldness that used to creep into his bones and remind him of the lack of humanity within the mansion was now relaxing, like stepping into an air-conditioned room on a hot day.
It no longer felt like a haunted house that was hell-bent on killing him.
It felt like… home.
It was at that moment that Jacob realised what had happened in full.
He had entered his dream realm.
He double-checked with analysis to confirm he was really there.
[Dream realm connection established]
[Current realm: Forgotten mansion]
[Access point set to: Forgotten mansion]
[Connection can now be broken at will from access point]
[Connection can be re-established at any time]
[Quest: Unknown. Acquire more data]
Jacob practically jumped with joy.
If he was right this meant he could now access the dream realm whenever he wanted in real life. He wouldn't even have to worry about setting up materials or anything like his friends did.
He could just tell analysis to send him in when he next fell asleep and bam, he would arrive here.
'The forgotten mansion huh?' Jacob thought to himself.
He supposed it wasn't a bad name, and the place seemed alright now that it didn't feel distinctly evil.
His eyes landed on the only door he could open, the most auspicious door in the whole mansion.
The one had tattooed on himself.
The large wooden plaque above it still read 'Knowledge is Power'. As imposing as ever, even now it seemed almost regal, like the rest of the mansion should be bowing in its presence.
Jacob made his way into the room which he knew to be the library.
Boy was he surprised with what he saw.
It was a library alright, but it was MASSIVE.
The whole place was impossibly large, he appeared to be in a main stage area which was surrounded by a semi-circle of what seemed like dozens of floors, all filled with bookshelves.
The straight part of the circle held an impossibly tall wall, two large wooden pillars made their homes as they marked the start of the balconies.
He could tell because from the centralised area, he could see the balconies of each floor as they were built progressively further away the higher the floor.
Not only was the place massive but everything appeared to be elegantly hand-carved wood. Each banister was crafted to perfection, giving an air of class to the library. The bookshelves were carved slightly differently on each floor, some were simple in design but sturdy. Others were covered in complex engravings while some had diagonal and haphazard shelving that was sure to make for an odd sorting system. Some of the shelves even seemed frail to the point of falling apart.
All of it was illuminated by a comfortable candlelight that appeared at exactly the right spacing to keep everything well-lit.
It was tied together by the massive skylight that was directly above the centre of the semicircle.
Through the light he could see a crystal-clear moon, so clear that he wondered if there was even any glass.
In fact, just from looking up, Jacob couldn't tell how far away the skylight was, or exactly how many floors the library held, even analysis was at a loss as it only returned error messages.
The sheer scale of the room, the enormity of what he was witnessing, he almost couldn't believe it despite it being before his very eyes.
Jacob stood there gaping for a minute before making his way to the centre area, where a single large table was placed.
It was majestic but simple, it had received the same love as the rest of the room but felt more built for purpose than some of the more lavish floors of the library. The moonlight shone down on it as if highlighting its importance.
The table only had one seat, a simple one with no armrest and a basic wooden design, on theme with the table. It was located facing away from the wall, out towards the rest of the library.
Jacob sat down at the seat and immediately sighed.
'How the hell is a wooden seat this comfortable…' he thought to himself as he stretched a little.
It was… nice.
The whole atmosphere was soothing. The gentle moonlight, the smell of old books, everything. It was the same comfort he felt at the university library, magnified by 100.
If the mansion felt like home then this felt like his bed, a safe place for him to totally relax.
He finally turned off overclock.
'Now if only I had something to read, some light fiction would be nice right no- whoa!' Jacob was thinking to himself only to be interrupted.
As he had thought of reading a dozen or so books had flown down from various floors and landed on the table, presenting their covers to him.
He recognised them as a few light fiction novels read right before he left home.
'Woah… how about some research material for biology' Jacob thought.
A second later his prayers were answered as more books flew down, these ones were summaries of science like forensics from crime shows and movies.
A little more experimenting and he realised the true nature of the library.
It was his data storage.
Every book was a simple text version of every piece of data collected by his analysis ability.
The light fiction novels he had seen were only those that were fresh enough in his head after analysis had 'installed' itself.
He hadn't had time for casual fiction reading since he had become a dreamer, so he didn't have any other data to draw on.
He found his ability was amped up in the room, he could process queries with zero mana cost.
He hadn't quite figured out the extent of how the library augmented his abilities but at a minimum, it would make any research he did much easier. Since he could cross reference and ask analysis to generate responses with no limits it meant that he could get much more done here in a time crunch than in the real world.
Not to mention the whole interface had a supernatural feel to it as Jacob could summon books to his hand as well as inkwells and quills to make his requests.
To most people, it may have seemed silly, but Jacob thought it was pretty cool. He even messed around with the book's summoning ability a bit just for fun.
Shame he'd never get to show off to anyone.
One thing was still bothering him.
His quest.
He decided to check with the library as he wrote his request on a piece of parchment.
'What is my quest?'
The room and his ability seemed to answer as one.
The moonlight from above focused on the wall behind him.
The massive one he had neglected up until now.
On it was a simple shelf at chest height. The wood comprising it was old, nearly rotten but still determinedly holding together despite the cruel passage of time.
The shelf held several books, not full to be brim like the rest of the bookcases that he now knew were databanks.
This was a more traditional setting of books. Some were diagonally leaning against others with some were stacked horizontally rather than vertically.
It felt more personal than the rest of the library, more alive.
[Quest: Choose from the Shelf of Broken Fables]
'The Shelf of Broken Fables? Sounds a little daunting but alright…' Jacob mumbled internally.
He took a look at the shelf in front of him. Each book seemed vastly different, some were coloured vibrancy, like a fairy tale. Others were bound in crimson leather, seeming to exude an ancient and horrific energy. The one he eventually selected was a little more understated.
It was a simple leatherbound book with a greyish-green matted cover and a simple title made out of stitched fabric that bore a startling resemblance to wood.
Like the other books it had no name on its binding or text on the back, the only mark of its identity was its title.
'Lustrafane Forest'
He opened his book and was greeted with a simple message from analysis.
[Fable chosen]
[An unforgiving forest is where this fable finds itself. Creatures from dark tales and nightmares lurk within the shadows while any who survive struggle to stay sane. Those who call the forest home believe themselves to have become its master. Yet none have ever escaped. Truth and lies, fact and fiction, redemption and deception. All are two sides of the same coin. Only one question remains. Heads or tails?]
[Realm: Lustrafane]
[Connection to Earth severed]
[Connection will be re-established upon completion of quest]