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

with 36, and now

that there would be about 30 left near the

quite a devastating death

deaths mostly focused on the first two levels in the

within expected parameters, but 80% of Early Ancestral Mages and 70% of

What happened?

enter one of the extremely rare group trials

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

only left one

had killed a lot

But who?

one of the three remaining Initial Ancestral Mages. After all, an Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that

via voice transmission,

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 always

deals with other

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

Initial Ancestral Mage was a notorious

Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized in

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

certain

him to kill so many other Clouds

the first two Clouds, they were not happy about

left the third Initial Ancestral

woman with light-blue

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

exchanging information, the Clouds concluded that she had joined just a couple of decades ago and that her powers were a

had an Ice Affinity, but they hadn't seen her fight

still

even a single Cloud had seen her

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

that they had traveled

if they could earn more by combining their