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.

the one

36, and now

30 left near the

was quite a devastating death

on the first two levels in the Ancestral Mage

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

What happened?

extremely rare group trials

kinds of trials were only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had

left

killed a lot of

But who?

After all, an Early Ancestral Mage couldn't

Peak Ancestral Mages talked to each other via voice transmission,

Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that level for quite

deals with

to her business, which was why

Mage was a notorious serial

biggest customer, and he

a lot of

find certain extremely rare materials in the right

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

of the first two Clouds, they were not happy about this

the third

a woman with light-blue hair, and they all

that had asked the leading

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

an Ice Affinity, but they

that still

single Cloud had seen her fight in the Wilderness

Initial Ancestral Mages also noticed all of this, and they moved

had traveled mostly together

earn more by combining their