Beep!

Beep!

The beeping sounds came from Avalon as it tried to notify Ace about their current situation...

"Ugh... Did I sleep for too long? What's the situation?"

The young man immediately asked after waking up. He glanced at the various monitors within the bridge and noticed that a closer image of the asteroid was being shown.

There was even a complete detail regarding its component. It was indeed not a celestial body and Avalon indicated the parts that were artificially made. The information was much more complete compared to the previous information he received.

"Impressive work... If it was scanned without using any spell enhancements, even Avalon might have been fooled with this... Wait-- Are we moving away?"

[ We've just reached the safest distance about 15 seconds ago. Moving forward would give us a high chance of being discovered by the enemies. ]

"I see..."

The safest distance that Avalon mentioned was actually quite not too far from the spacecraft. After all, it was only 100 kilometers away and the highly advanced civilizations in the outer space had no problem in monitor several astronomical units at all.

"Very well... How's the preparation? We'll act according to our original plan..."

[ Preparation complete. ]

Ace took a deep breath and silently prayed that everything will be fine. This will be their first contact with a foreign species after being sent to the Magic Earth...

Although Arians look like a human, they have obvious traits that would separate them from the human race... In truth, this would also be his first time meeting their race since they have different affiliations... The Arians being part of the Meredith Empire would obviously be a huge divide for them.

Anyway, there's no need to hesitate now as he commanded Avalon to begin the operation.

"Commence First Phase Operation!"

As soon as he said this, Avalon immediately took action and started the operation as it simulated before.

Ace watched the Excellence from the monitors as it opened its linear catapult to send out the Mech Frames bearing the top grade mana artifacts to isolate the spacecraft.

As soon as they were in an acceptable distance...

The two mid-size spaceships started to approach the asteroid at a very fast speed!

The positron cannons had also started to accumulate energy...

These actions obviously alarmed the enemy... The heat coming from the cannons couldn't be hidden by a mere magic spell anymore.

But it was enough! The moment the Arians detected that they were under attack... The cannons were already at the critical stage!

"Fire!"

The positron cannons from Transcendence fired first!

Boom!

'As expected... They have a quick response...'

Avalon managed to catch every action of the enemy. As the attack was about to land, all the energy it has focused at the front of the asteroid...

The positron cannon was extremely powerful since it was also enhanced by various spells... However, the Arians weren't some pushover people as they have top-quality devices installed in their spaceship.

They shifted all the spaceship's energy shield on their front to defend against the positron cannon!

Unfortunately, another powerful energy was detected by their system...

There was another enemy on their right side... It was the Excellence that waited for the right time...

It was another sneak attack and everything was going according to plan.

This time, the positron cannon didn't target the body of the spacecraft or asteroid but instead targeted those well-hidden thrusters on its back!

The Arians do not have time to dodge so they can only embrace for impact...

Boom! Boom!

Some explosions occurred on the enemy spacecraft after getting hit by that strike. The spaceship's aft was severely damaged and they were obviously immobilized.

It can also be seen that the energy shield covering the whole ship was no longer present. That last attack was aimed carefully to avoid meaningless deaths and massive destruction...

Ace still has a use for people and the spacecraft that looks like an asteroid.

Once it was done... The Mech Frames who silently activated magic spells to the asteroid's surroundings had used another magic spell to stun the enemies...

Mana Wave!

The mana that came from the Mechs managed to bypass the defenses of the spacecraft.

After all, only the energy shield that was taken down would be capable of intervening with the mana spells. Now that it was gone, the Mana Wave that wasn't really a high-level spell managed to affect everyone within the spacecraft.

Well, just to make sure... The Mana Wave they cast didn't just end with a single spell being used...

It was used multiple times to ensure that everyone was affected...

Two minutes later...

Ace felt that he waited for enough and felt reassured that everyone within the enemy spacecraft was truly subdued by the mana spell.

There weren't any movements at all during a couple of minutes of continuous spells.

The hatch of the Excellence opened once again but instead of sending out Mech Frames, there were dozens of automatons that came out!

They were nimble and very fast as they entered the asteroid in many ways.

This all happened after the Excellence managed to get close to the enemy without being harmed...

"Avalon, let me control one of the automatons..."

Ace immediately picked up one of the electronic visors that were just placed near the captain's seat.

[ Affirmative. ]

The young man felt happy about this development. The automaton that he will be secretly controlling should be more than enough to meet these enemies.

***

While Ace was busy on the outer space's matters, some of the gamers that passed the simulation test just received their passing remarks and were now being invited over to the Mt. Raven to fully discuss the partnership that Ace would like to offer them.

It wasn't that hard to grade the simulation test, but Avalon needed some time to simulate whether it managed to learn the life-saving magic spells that it has.

"Everyone! I just received an invitation from senior Wallace's company... How about you guys?"

Hilda immediately informed everyone in her team about the good news that she found.

Escanor and the others replied after a while telling that they were also invited...

"It's amazing! We did it!"

"Are you guys interested?"

"Yes, I want to take a look at the very least... I'm curious about this job offer. It seems that it requires the gamer's knowledge if I'm not mistaken..."

"I would like to say the same thing. I'm also curious so I'll hear him out..."

Everyone has their own reasons for joining the invitation but it won't change the fact that they were all curious about the content of the contract or how they will be convinced to accept it...