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 they were waiting for,

had started with 36,

had expected that there would be about 30 left near the end, but there

a devastating

the first two levels in

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

What happened?

enter one of the extremely rare group trials with a

only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in the

only left one other

killed a lot of

But who?

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

each other via voice transmission, trying to find out who

the end, it came out that two of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that level for quite a

She even had several deals

her business, which was why everyone was quite certain that

Mage was a notorious serial

was the first Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized

lot of stuff which he would then

took requests to find certain extremely rare materials

no sense for him to kill so many other

auras of the first two Clouds, they

left the third Initial

light-blue

been the new Cloud that had asked the leading Bolt about the

had joined just a couple of

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

still held

seen her fight in

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

were thankful that they had

see if they could earn more