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.

the one they

36, and now

about 30 left near

quite a devastating death

more, the deaths mostly focused on the first two

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

What happened?

extremely rare

trials were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been

only left

had killed a lot

But who?

Ancestral Mages. After all, an Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly

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

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

She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety in the Wilderness Hunt, they would get

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

second Initial Ancestral Mage was a notorious

the first Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and

earning a lot of stuff which he would then mostly sell to other

requests to find certain extremely rare materials in the

sense for him to kill so many other Clouds since

the auras of the first two Clouds,

left the third Initial Ancestral

woman with light-blue hair, and they all remembered

new Cloud that had asked the

that she had joined just a couple of decades ago

that she had an Ice Affinity,

that still held

had seen

also noticed all of this, and

they had traveled mostly together this

they could earn more