Jacob's head whipped to the door as he heard his uninvited visitor.
A man judging by the voice.
It was quite jarring to hear the voice of a person so soon into the nightmare trial.
In his last trial, the only real communication he had was with the demon that wanted to use him.
Now he was pressed with two basic choices within the first few minutes of his trial.
To answer the man at the door or feign ignorance.
He overclocked to 10x and after 2 real-world seconds, he made his decision.
"Attack? By whom? Where?" He shouted as he made his way to the door.
He decided that this was the best move for one key reason.
The letter he had found on the table.
For better or worse it informed him of his identity within this realm.
Given how conveniently it was laid out for him, he assumed that his best option was to put the identity to use.
There was of course some deeper logic to this.
Although each realm, quest, and trial could differ massively, there was a single consistency between them.
Fairness.
Not in the traditional sense mind you, his trial in the mansion was anything but fair.
It was fair in the sense that between the trial and the dreamer's ability, it was always possible to complete the quest.
Things got a little more complicated when multiple dreamers were involved but the general rule still stood.
The realm had given him an identity, one that was primed to interact with a variety of people.
If he could use it correctly, he could get a lot of information.
He'd even venture that he needed to get this information to find out his quest.
With that in mind, he decided to respond to the man at the door, feigning ignorance of the murder temporarily before he had a better grasp of the situation.
He opened the door, and the man came into view.
He was an… odd fellow, to say the least.
He was a spindly thing, the only clothing he wore was slightly similar to Jacobs, although of a worse quality. It seemed to be made in colours of green and brown, emulating the trees around them. On his chest was an insignia of what appeared to be a circuit made from intertwined branches.
But that wasn't what caught Jacob off guard about the man.
It was the fact that the exposed parts of his body showed a thin sheen of reddish fur, along with two ears of a similar colour and a tail.
He appeared to be a man–fox hybrid.
To Jacob's surprise, the man pushed the door open with more force than he expected, widening the narrow view that Jacob had wanted to create.
"Sir! Beasts are attacking the cabins from all entrances! A truce has been called and all able-bodied have been asked to help defend." The fox man spoke rapidly but with purpose.
His eyes darted behind Jacob for a moment, causing his heart to skip a beat.
But the next second they were back on him, too focused on his task and the impending crisis to be distracted.
"Where am I needed" Jacob asked quickly, given his best impression of an authoritative voice.
"Currently the Northeast and South entrances are holding, our faction and the Wildkin have them under control but your men and the Purist servants in the West. We didn't realise they were also under siege until moments ago as it's the furthest entrance from the cabins." The fox man quickly reported.
"The vassals of the Forestborn and the leaders of the Wildkin cults have agreed to assist your Purist faction's gears in reinforcing the West once they are no longer under siege." The quick-tongued fox man finished.
"Good, I hope that the other factions will Honor their word in this time of crisis" Jacob said solemnly in response.
He set off in the direction the man had gestured in when he mentioned the West, hoping that he was going the right way.
He heard swift footfalls as the fox man left after seeing Jacob go. As this happened Jacob let out a sigh of relief.
It was one thing to BS his way through a situation, but pretending to have full knowledge of the situation when you had little to none was much harder.
Although there was some information to be gained about the general context of the world from the fox man's words.
For example, the Purist faction that was mentioned was almost definitely the one Jacob was a part of.
In addition, the mention of the Forestborn using vassals made him believe that they may follow something similar to a monarchy.
Then there was the mention of the Purist faction's gears. Jacob's basic knowledge told him that gears were mechanical parts used in certain machines like clocks.
But from the context he guessed that they may instead refer to a certain role within the Purist faction.
If his role was that of a 'cog', then it wasn't too much of a stretch to believe that 'gears' may also be a title.
Every bit of information he could get would help him survive. If he knew more about the world and his role then he could better position himself to deal with danger, or with any luck avoid it altogether.
Jacob grimaced slightly as he thought of his next task.
It appeared he was about to enter his first true battle.