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

with 36, and

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

a devastating

deaths mostly focused on the first two levels in the

expected parameters, but 80% of

What happened?

they enter one of the extremely rare group trials with a chance

kinds of trials were only open for Peak Ancestral

only left one other

a lot of

But who?

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

via voice transmission,

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

deals with other Clouds. In exchange for her safety in the Wilderness Hunt,

why everyone was quite certain that

Ancestral Mage was a

biggest customer, and he specialized

a lot of stuff which he would then mostly sell to

requests to find certain extremely rare

so many

two

left the third Initial Ancestral

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

Cloud that had asked the leading

information, the Clouds concluded that she had joined just a couple

an Ice Affinity, but they hadn't

that still held

even a single Cloud had seen her fight in the Wilderness

all of this, and

thankful that they had traveled mostly

wanted to see if they could earn more