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.

Clouds in total, and with the one they were waiting

had started with 36, and now they

would be about 30 left

was quite a

on the first

parameters, but 80% of Early Ancestral Mages and 70% of Initial Ancestral

What happened?

they enter one of the extremely rare group trials with a chance of

of trials were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in the Wilderness Hunt several

left one other

a lot

But who?

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

talked to each other via voice transmission, trying to

the end, it came out that two of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that level for quite a time to accumulate power, and they had

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 get a

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

Initial Ancestral Mage was

Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized in a wide variety of

earning a lot of stuff which

took requests to find certain

kill so many other

the auras of the first two Clouds, they

the third Initial Ancestral

light-blue

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

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

knew that she had an Ice Affinity,

that still

had seen her fight in the Wilderness

noticed all

they had traveled mostly together

they could earn more by combining their businesses this