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

started with 36, and now they

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

was quite a

more, the deaths mostly focused on the first two levels in the

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

What happened?

they enter one of the extremely rare group

open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in the

left one other

a lot

But who?

After all, an Early Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that many Initial Ancestral Mages since they were not allowed to

Peak Ancestral Mages talked to each other via voice

that two of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at

inspecting the wildernesses and noting down locations of trials to make a lot of money. She even had several deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety in the Wilderness Hunt, they would

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

Initial Ancestral Mage was

the first Ancestral Mage's biggest customer, and he specialized in a wide variety

other, earning a lot of stuff which he would then mostly sell to other

even took requests to find certain extremely rare materials

would make no sense for him to kill so many other Clouds since that would damage

the auras of the first two Clouds, they

left the third Initial Ancestral

was a woman with light-blue hair, and they all

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

joined just a couple of decades ago

had an Ice Affinity, but

still

Cloud had seen her fight in

Initial Ancestral Mages also noticed all

thankful that they had traveled mostly

they could earn more by combining their businesses