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.

Clouds in total, and with the one they were waiting for, they would

started with 36,

be about 30 left near the end, but

was quite a devastating death

mostly focused on the first two

levels were still within expected parameters, but 80% of Early Ancestral Mages and 70% of Initial

What happened?

of the extremely rare group trials with a

Peak Ancestral Mages that had been

only left one

had killed a lot of

But who?

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

via voice transmission, trying

of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that

of trials to make a lot of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety

her business, which was why everyone was quite certain that

was a notorious

Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized

completed one trial after the other, earning a lot of stuff which he

took requests to find certain extremely rare materials in the right

for him to kill so many other Clouds since

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

left the third

light-blue hair, and they

had asked the leading Bolt about the

that she had joined just a couple of decades ago and that her powers were

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

that still

single Cloud had seen her fight in

other two Initial Ancestral Mages also noticed all of this, and

had

see if they could earn more