Infinite Cube: Extra's Life in Another World-Chapter 20: League Begins[2]

"Ahhhhhh!"

Kai screamed loudly as he fell onto the ground of the test, weirdly enough, he sustained no form of injury.

As he slowly stood up from the ground, dusting his clothes, a voice rang through the arena.

[Welcome, Cadets, to the Patrician Jungle... I wish you good luck!]

Kai shifted his focus as he surveyed the area he got transported to.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

Damp, leaf-strewn ground, the silence that stretched almost endlessly, the smell of wildlife, and the crippling feeling of horror.

The Patrician Jungle was one of the many pocket worlds in Noctis, a large space filled with wildlife of different kinds.

The forest, unlike most pocket worlds, was almost empty, with little high-level inhabitants. Because of this fact, the Patrician Jungle was usually used as a sort of battle royale, where students fought each other, whether in teams or individually, until only one remained.

It was a brutal battlefield of the Awakened.

Kai himself had been teleported to the southeastern part of the jungle, which was the area usually known for its malicious inhabitants.

The Growling Agers.

"It just had to be the death zone?"

[At least you didn't spawn in front of Matthew's group.]

Kai shivered a little at the thought of such a scenario happening.

"Good thing something like that didn't happen."

Kai sighed as he jumped over a large tree root onto the leaf-coated ground.

He looked up at the virtual map created by Alpha before heading to his left.

With a simple leap, he was airborne, traversing from tree to tree at a controlled pace.

Glancing at the large projected timer that could be seen from all over the jungle, Kai couldn't help but be overwhelmed.

On the screen were videos showing the progress of different teams and how many scores they had gotten.

And as he had anticipated, the main cast was all in the top five.

"Tsk."

He clicked his tongue loudly as a frown appeared on his face.

After passing about thirty trees, Kai came to a halt.

Turning to face the right, where he swore he heard a scream, Kai changed his direction, but this time he advanced with gentle steps.

Reaching the spot where the noise emanated from, Kai was shocked to see who was about to throw hands.

"Matthew and Elia's team."

On the right of the large tree Kai hid behind was Matthew's team, made up of mostly extras except for Joshua, the rank one, and Matthew himself.

But seeing the other team's lineup, Kai couldn't help but chuckle.

No matter how much of a monster Matthew or Joshua were, they didn't come close to the lineup Elia's team had.

Overall rank two: Zhou Qinling; overall rank four: Anica Abraham; rank two within the first years: Edo Ikenna; rank five within the first years: Cordelia Blackwood; and finally, rank ten within the first years: Lilith Marionette.

'Damn, Elia's team is really stacked.'

[What kind of unfair system is that?]

'And I thought my luck stats were maxed out,' Kai thought as he slowly tiptoed away in an attempt to avoid the confrontation.

But before he could make enough space, he heard a loud noise.

The first matchups had begun: Anica versus Joshua.

[Let's watch it.]

'Are you sure?'

[Yes, I would like to take as much information as I can.]

Kai pondered for some time before squatting next to a large tree.

'Let's hope it is good.'

Anica's saber swung towards Joshua, making the air grow stiff. As if he had already predicted it, Joshua moved up to the left onto a large bubble made of water.

Anica clicked her tongue before stepping on the tree, and with a simple leap, she reached his position.

White flames surged down her blade like a river of fire, slicing the water bubble apart.

The remaining members from each team watched without moving an inch.

This was a fight between two of the academy's strongest.

Landing on the floor, Joshua's pretty face, which looked more like that of a girl, seemed to flicker with his clear blue eyes as he formed yet another ball of water and sent it toward Anica.

Responding to his attack, Anica glided to the left and slashed her sword forward, making Joshua stagger a few steps back.

The space in between the trees they fought in was limited, so there was only so much they could do.

Seeing the blatant obstruction, both Anica and Joshua sent a large amount of sharp mana into the atmosphere, causing all the trees to shatter into splinters and massive debris.

With more space, the two third years held nothing back and clashed with each other; the tremors formed by their sudden strike made even Matthew take steps back, but even that didn't make his gaze waver.

He looked at the two like soon-to-be prey.

Hearing Alpha's voice, Kai stood from where he squatted and left the fight. He, too, had to collect points to prevent his expulsion.

'Why did you tell me to leave all of a sudden?' Kai addressed Alpha, gripping his chest.

[I was done with what I needed.]

'And what's that?'

[Analyzing more abilities.]

Kai waited for her to continue.

[The blue-haired girl with glasses has a flame-type ability that most likely eats away at life force, either hers or someone else's. It was probably a family attribute, considering her mastery of it.]

'And Joshua's?'

[Just like yours, he has mana manipulation and can reshape mana into different things.]

'That seems pretty OP.'

[Yes, but he has little understanding of his ability, though you should be careful of them both.]

'If I fight either of them, who would win?'

[As of now, if you fight any of the named cast that were present, you would lose.]

Kai's expression darkened. He knew he wasn't as strong as the main cast, since the original owner of the body wasn't strong enough to use the power of the elixir, and unlike others, he had a less practical and battle-oriented trait.

"I never thought it would be that much."

[Don't feel too bad; you will soon get stronger than all of them.]

Kai smiled at Alpha's lazy attempt at counseling him.

'You're right, no need to feel bad,' Kai said as he continued his journey northwest.

Around the northwest area of the Patrician Jungle, there was meant to be a horde of tier 8 drifters that Matthew would take down later in the story.

The main reason Kai remembered this and the reason he was heading in that direction instead of looking for other cadets, was because of the mana stone that those species of drifters loved to collect.

'With that stone, I might be able to complete the weaving process,' Kai thought as he increased his pace even further.

Before long, he reached the area that was infested with mutated wasps.

The Admiral Wasps' Colony.

Kai knew all too well that he wasn't strong enough to face the entire colony; he was just one man who hadn't learned how to use his ability yet, and even Matthew had to bring his entire coven to defeat the colony.

But that was then. During the period Matthew came here, the queen had already given birth to the prince of the wasp using the largest mana stone they found, which made the battle that much more difficult.

Matthew didn't only have to fight the prince but also the mother wasp and the rest of the colony. But since Kai already knew the plot, he had made preparations to come to the jungle just to wipe them out.

'I am such a hero.'

[...]

Kai moved slowly through the thick bushes; the smell of petroleum and cooking gas slowly made him feel dizzy.

'Let's get over with this quickly,' he thought as he sprinted for the opening of a large cave.

Since he was rather low-ranked and was currently hiding in the bush, the surveillance drones couldn't pick up any signals of him. Adding to the fact that Alpha had already hacked the system, he was literally in two places at once.

The cave was quiet, with only the sounds of droplets of a black liquid landing on the jagged floors.

Kai covered his nose to prevent himself from passing out and headed into the cave.

There weren't any wasps or drifters moving around, just absolute silence.

The reason for this was rather easy to get: since they were drifters, they had a different operating system that meant they didn't need to sleep during the day or night, but instead had a specific period they slept.

This meant that not just the egg of the prince, but the countless wasps were going to nourish Kai's stats.

'Hehehe, I just love levelling up; why didn't I play games back on Earth?' he laughed as he crossed the wasps who sprawled on the floor of the cave.

Summoning the tachi blade that was now augmented due to his weaver ability, he gently unsheathed it and pierced the wasp.

Almost instantly, the system rang in his head.

---

YOU HAVE SLAIN A QUASI-TIER 8 DRIFTER.

YOU HAVE EARNED 3 STAT POINTS.

YOU HAVE EARNED A VESPER.

---

Hearing the words of the system, Kai immediately counted the number of wasps in the cave, excluding the mother and the prince's egg, which was in a different chamber.

"Fifty wasps and three stat points each; that is one hundred and fifty stat points." Kai smiled widely before moving from one wasp to the other, piercing his blade through each one of them.

After less than five minutes, Kai was done with harvesting the core and stat points and now stood in front of the wasp mother's nest.

As he took a sluggish step forward, the ground beneath him shook.

He turned back to check if another abomination had appeared, but nothing was behind him. Turning to face his front, Kai felt his life flash before his eyes.

Cold sweat beads formed on his face; his eyes widened in horror.

What he had tried to avoid was right in front of him.

The Mother Wasp had awoken.