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, and

had expected that there would be about 30 left near the

was quite a

more, the deaths mostly focused on the first two

levels were still within expected parameters, but 80% of

What happened?

extremely rare group

Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in the Wilderness Hunt several

left one

a lot of

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

to each other via voice transmission, trying to

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

to make a lot of money. She even had several deals with

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

Mage was

biggest customer, and he

the other, earning a lot of stuff

even took requests to find certain

to kill so many other Clouds

from the auras of the first two Clouds, they were not happy

left the third

a woman with light-blue hair, and

the new Cloud that had asked the leading Bolt

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

an Ice Affinity,

still

Cloud had seen her fight in

also noticed all of this, and they moved closer

that they had traveled

wanted to see if they could earn more by