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.

total, and with the one they were waiting for, they

had started with 36, and now

expected that there would be about 30

quite a devastating death

on the first two levels

other three levels were still within expected parameters, but 80% of

What happened?

one of the extremely rare group trials with a chance

were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in

only left

had killed a lot of

But who?

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

to each other via voice transmission, trying to find out

out that two of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at

make a lot of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety in the Wilderness Hunt, they would get a discount for purchasing any of the

which was why everyone was quite certain that she

Mage was a notorious serial

Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized in a wide

lot of stuff which he would then mostly sell to other

requests to find certain extremely rare materials in the right

him to kill so many other Clouds since that would damage

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

third Initial

a woman with light-blue hair, and

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

joined just a couple of

had an Ice Affinity, but they

still

even a single Cloud had seen her fight in the Wilderness

noticed all of

were thankful that they had

see if they could earn more by combining their businesses this