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.

and with the one they were

started with 36, and

there would be about 30 left

a devastating death

deaths mostly focused on the first two levels

parameters, but 80% of Early

What happened?

they enter one of the extremely rare group trials with a

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

only left one other

a

But who?

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

talked to each other via voice transmission, trying to find out

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

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

be detrimental to her business, which was why everyone was quite certain that

second Initial Ancestral Mage was a notorious

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

of stuff which he would then mostly sell

to find certain extremely rare materials in

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

the first two Clouds,

left the third

a woman with light-blue hair, and they all

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

the Clouds concluded that she had joined just a

Affinity, but they hadn't seen her fight

still held

a single Cloud had seen her

also noticed all of this, and they moved closer to

had traveled mostly together

they could earn more by combining their businesses this