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,

with 36, and

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

a devastating

the deaths mostly focused on the first two levels

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

What happened?

one of the extremely rare group trials with a chance of

only open for Peak Ancestral Mages that had been in

only left

killed a

But who?

Ancestral Mage couldn't possibly kill that many Initial Ancestral Mages since they

via voice transmission, trying to find out who

that two of the three Initial Ancestral Mages had been at that level for quite

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 get

business, which was why everyone was quite certain that

second Initial Ancestral Mage was a notorious serial

Mage's biggest customer, and

other, earning a lot of

even took requests to find certain extremely rare materials in the

him to kill so many other

from the auras of the first two

third Initial Ancestral

light-blue hair,

Cloud that had asked the leading Bolt about

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

Ice Affinity, but they hadn't seen her fight

still

seen her fight in

also noticed all of this, and they moved closer to

had

wanted to see if they could earn more by combining their businesses