Cipher slowly walked up to Maya and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up nervously.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked nervously.

Cipher smiled. "Maybe just stick to support from now on," he said.

"What?"

She then looked at the others, who nodded. "Just handle support. Leave the attacking to us," they said in unison.

"Umm, well, okay," she said, seeming a little down.

Cipher looked at her stats through Appraisal:

[Name: Maya]

[Level: 80]

[Rank: B]

[Species: Human]

[Class: Archmage]

[Health: 3,800/3,800]

[Mana: 900/1,400]

[Strength: 25]

[Stamina: 38]

[Agility: 35]

[Intelligence: 140]

[Skills (11/13): Mana Manipulation (SSS), Annihilation (SS), Meteor Shower (S), Mana Recovery (S), Lightning Storm (A), Mass Blessing (A), Mass Heal (A), Sanctuary (A), Haste (B), Slow (B), Purification (B)]

[Unique Skill: Timeless]

Her stats had transformed so much they were unrecognizable. The spell she had used just now was Annihilation. "It's actually an SS-rank spell?" he thought in shock. But looking much closer, he was confused. Wasn't the spell worth a thousand mana? Then how come she was able to cast it and still have so much mana left?

After some looking around, he finally found it. He always forgot to look at the intrinsic skills when checking skills through Appraisal. He looked at the Archmage class's trait.

[Class Trait: Beloved of Mana]

[Description: As an Archmage, you are deeply loved by the mana of the world. All spells cast have their mana cost reduced by 50% and their effectiveness increased by 50%.]

He was even more shocked when he read this. This was completely broken. With her mana, she could actually cast spells halfway to SSS rank twice? And in succession too, thanks to Timeless. How was such a thing even allowed? This was like using ten Optimize cards, twice.

The first time for cost and second for efficiency.

He let out a soft sigh, then looked directly into Maya's eyes. "Maya, your magic is really strong. But you shouldn't use it without permission," he said.

Looking at her disappointed expression, he continued. "We're a party, and in a party, we work as a single organism. Everyone contributes their part."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he continued. "I understand that you want to contribute, and you can. But in an organism, when there's an organ doing something, instead of trying to do the same thing, it's better to do something else that no one is doing, right?" He gestured toward the others. "Although you're powerful and could replace any of us front fighters, the party will be overall weaker because we won't have a support anymore."

He pointed at the area around them, at the destruction she'd caused. "And look at this. The way it was destroyed. If you used such magic with us on the battlefield where it's hard to tell friend from foe, what would happen to us?"

She nodded in understanding.

He then smiled. "But this doesn't mean you can't use your offensive magic," he said, and her expression brightened. "Before using high-level offensive magic, you can propose it. If the situation allows it, then the front fighters will pull back behind your shield and you can use it. Still, you can't spam nuclear magic. You have to wait at least half a minute between high-level magic casts."

He then asked, "What do you think?"

"I'll do just as Brother Cipher says," she said.

The others at the back finally sighed in relief after hearing her words.

Now that that's out of the way, how do we deal with this... Cipher thought as he glanced at the hole going through the ground with a serious expression. Although Maya's magic was strong, it wasn't strong enough to tear such a deep hole into the ground. She had just exposed what was already there.

He had been careless. Although he had flown up to check the sky for out-of-range monsters, he had forgotten to check underground. After all, who would've thought that the enemy would be under them?

…

"That's..." Selene began in shock. Dante and Ryker also looked, their expressions freezing in shock.

Maya turned around to look as well. Before, she hadn't noticed it well, but now she saw it clearly. It was some sort of blob-like creature that seemed to cover the entire planet underground.

"What is that?" she asked.

"You guys should start moving," Cipher said, waving his hand and creating a box with a door opening.

Looking at the monster through Appraisal, it was actually an SSS-rank creature. As for what it was doing... it was probably consuming the entire world from the inside out.

"Get going? What do you mean?" Maya asked.

At that time, they noticed the blob monster start growing bumps on its skin. Those bumps began wiggling, pulsing with movement beneath the surface. Then they split open, revealing wet, glistening flesh underneath. The bumps stretched and twisted, elongating into grotesque limbs.

Heads emerged - featureless and misshapen. Within seconds, the bumps had fully transformed into humanoid creatures, their bodies slick and dripping with viscous fluid.

"Quick, we don't have much time left. Cast all the buffs you can on me and get in," Cipher said.

Hearing his words, Selene, Ryker, and Dante got into the metal capsule. Maya's eyes darted between Cipher and the others, seeming conflicted.

"Just listen to the team leader," Selene said, and she seemed to snap out of it.

She nodded. She then extended her hands towards Cipher and cast Haste, Purification, and Mass Blessing.

At that time, the monsters had already reached the top of the hole and were starting to charge towards them. She quickly extended her hands towards them and cast the Slow debuff.

"Good. Now get inside and use your Mana Manipulation to fly to the safe zone," Cipher said as he charged towards the charging monsters.

Maya listened and jumped into the metal house, lifting it up with her mana and beginning to fly. One of the monsters tried to rush towards the flying capsule, but Cipher appeared before it and sliced its hand clean off.

He now stood opposite the five monsters. The buffs from Maya were quite good, he thought. Still, he didn't know if that would be enough. After all, they were all S-ranks.

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