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.

in total, and with the one

36, and now they

there would be about 30 left near the end, but there were only

quite a devastating death

the deaths mostly focused on the first

three levels were still within expected parameters, but 80% of

What happened?

rare group trials with a

Ancestral Mages that had been

left

had killed a lot of

But who?

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

each other via voice transmission, trying to find

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

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 discount for purchasing any of the

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

Ancestral Mage was

first Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and he

earning a lot of stuff

certain extremely

kill so many other Clouds since that

of the first two Clouds, they

the third Initial

light-blue

the leading Bolt about the

exchanging information, the Clouds concluded that she had joined just a couple of decades

that she had an Ice Affinity, but they hadn't

that still

Cloud had seen her fight in the

noticed all of this, and

thankful that they had traveled

to see if they could earn more by combining their businesses this