Sword God in a World of Magic

"Oh, hey! You're still alive!" One of the Peak Ancestral Mages shouted to a Mid Ancestral Mage with a smile.

The other Ancestral Mage floated over and nodded. "Yep, and I also made quite a bit this time. I completed three trials."

The first Mage let out an impressive whistle. "Impressive," he said. "Anyway, did you get Maruda?"

The second Mage slowly shook his head. "Couldn't find him."

"Huh, he's normally one of the first ones that return. I thought that you got him," the first Mage said.

"Nope," the second Mage said again. "It would suck if he suddenly dies. I wouldn't get my payment and his wealth."

"Speaking of," he added as he looked at the gathered Mages above the surface. "I also don't see my contractor."

The first Mage shrugged. "Maybe they're still in a trial?"

The other Mage just furrowed his brows. Then, he turned to Lucin, who was looking at the ocean. "Lucin, who are we still waiting for?"

"There's one more Peak Ancestral Mage. She's choosing her rewards right now. I don't think it will take longer than a couple of minutes," Lucin answered.

When Lucin said that, several other Mages raised their eyebrows in surprise.

Wait, basically everyone was already here?

They looked at each other and counted.

Twelve Peak Ancestral Mages.

Two Late Ancestral Mages.

Two Mid Ancestral Mages.

One Early Ancestral Mage.

Three Initial Ancestral Mages.

the one they were waiting for, they would

started with 36, and now they

would be about 30 left near the

quite a devastating

deaths mostly focused on the first

levels were still within expected parameters, but 80% of Early Ancestral Mages and

What happened?

the extremely rare group trials with a chance of

were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had

only left one

killed a lot of

But who?

Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that many Initial Ancestral Mages since they

via voice transmission, trying

three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that

trials to make a lot of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange

would be detrimental to her business, which was why everyone was quite certain that she hadn't

second Initial Ancestral Mage was a

was the first Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized

other, earning a lot of

find certain extremely rare

no sense for him to kill so many other Clouds

the first two Clouds, they were not

third Initial

was a woman with light-blue

been the new Cloud that had asked the leading Bolt about the Deep Crevices

joined just a couple of decades ago and

knew that she had an Ice Affinity, but

still held

even a single Cloud had seen her fight in the

Mages also noticed all

thankful that they had traveled

earn more by combining