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.

total, and with the one they were waiting for, they would

36, and

had expected that there would be about 30 left near the

a devastating

on the first two levels in the

but 80% of Early

What happened?

of the extremely rare group trials

these kinds of trials were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been

left one other

killed a lot

But who?

Initial Ancestral Mages. After all, an Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that many Initial Ancestral Mages since they were

other via voice

Ancestral Mages had been at that level for quite a time to accumulate power, and they had always been

of them focused on inspecting the wildernesses and noting down locations of trials to make a lot of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety in the Wilderness Hunt, they would

which was why everyone was quite certain that she

Ancestral Mage was a notorious serial

Mage's biggest customer, and he

completed one trial after the other, earning a lot of

took requests to find certain

sense for him to kill so many other Clouds since that would damage

of the first two Clouds, they were

left the third Initial Ancestral

woman with light-blue hair, and they

had been the new Cloud that had asked the

that she had joined just a couple of decades ago and

an Ice Affinity, but they hadn't seen her fight

that still

Cloud had seen her fight

Mages also noticed all of this, and they

they had traveled mostly

wanted to see if they could earn more by combining