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.

with the one they were

started with 36, and now

expected that there would be about 30 left near the end, but

was quite a devastating death

more, the deaths mostly focused on the first

but 80% of Early

What happened?

rare group trials with

open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in the

only left one

a

But who?

Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that many Initial

Mages talked to each other via voice transmission, trying to

been at that level for

of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for

why everyone was quite

was a

Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized in a

one trial after the other, earning a lot of stuff which he would

to find certain extremely rare materials in the

so many other Clouds

judging from the auras of the first two Clouds, they

left the third Initial Ancestral

with light-blue hair, and they all

asked the leading Bolt about the Deep

Clouds concluded that she had joined just a couple of decades ago and that her

that she had an Ice Affinity,

still held

Cloud had seen her fight in

other two Initial Ancestral Mages also noticed all of this, and they moved closer

were thankful that they had traveled mostly

could earn more by