“Captain, we’ve got an unscheduled ring activation.” A young kitsune woman spoke up, glancing back from her monitor to look at the transit captain.

“It should be almost time for Lorek’s regular shift.” The captain mused, sitting back in his chair. “Maybe they’re just starting early. Check the inbound signature.” Despite the closeness of the next scheduled shift, they could not entirely rule out the possibility of a ‘random connection’ being established.

“Understood, sir.” The woman nodded, facing her terminal again to type on a holographic keyboard. A series of windows flashed on the screen, before she called back. “Unknown signature, sir! This is not a registered world!”

“Activate the protocols.” He furrowed his brow as he gave the command. A screen projected itself onto the wall in front of them. Within the image were two guards, each pointing thin pistols at an active Fairy Ring. Even now, the captain could see the faint shaking of the guns caused by nerves. There was always the chance that a disaster could walk through an unknown connection.

Soon, ripples could be seen in the otherwise smooth portal, and a heavy metallic clank was heard when a foot stepped through. No, not a foot… a boot, maybe? It was armored, a mix of silver with blue highlights. And then, the owner stepped through fully. The captain stood upright as he saw the metallic figure, distinctly aware that he had never seen anything like it before.

At least, not anything that didn’t tower three stories high. “Send a message to the queen, we have a First Contact.” The captain said, while the metallic figure looked between the two guards.

Casually, it retrieved a single card from a compartment on its left wrist, and held it up to its mouth. What came next sounded like a series of beeps and static to the captain, but surprisingly…

“This world is Deckan.” One of the guards spoke as if answering a question. “Please state your business.”

Again, another odd mix of static and beeping before he spoke again. “I’m not authorized to make that decision. Levin, you got this?” He asked the other guard, who gave a firm nod, not removing his pistol from its position.

The other guard then lowered his own gun, walking towards the wall and placing a hand on his head. “You seeing this, command?” He asked, his voice now coming through twice as he activated the radio.

“That’s right. What does it want?” The captain kept his brows furrowed as he focused on the screen, as if waiting for the metal man to take a hostile action.

“You didn’t hear? He said he wants to set up a meeting with the ‘local authority figure’. Guessing that means you.” It would seem that the soldier was unaware that the card the entity had been using was translating its odd speech patterns.

The captain simply nodded at that, glancing towards the girl who was already placing the call as commanded. “Whatever happens, follow protocol.” He told her, before walking towards the door. “I’ll be in room one.”

Interesting… silver weapons enchanted with geometric patterns to take advantage of the unique energy of dimensium. The golem thought to himself as he observed the weapons of the soldiers. Though, it would be far more efficient to use dimensium in the construction. Perhaps it is a more scarce resource within this world. I should note that as a potential trade opportunity.

As he thought to himself, he was being led through a series of stone hallways, doing his best to assess the level of civilization from the little details of both their architecture and any items he spotted along the way. If not for the presence of the gateway, he would have assumed them to be a lower class civilization, only level four or five. However, the guns he witnessed increased his evaluation slightly.

Soon enough, the two guards stopped in front of a door, gesturing for him to go inside. Without a word, he did so, pushing the door open with one hand. There were a number of enchantments that he could identify within the confines of this room, defensive spells meant to activate in the event that anyone comes to any harm.

“Interesting.” He spoke, though it seemed as if the organic in the room could not hear him. With a mental sigh, he once again retrieved the translation card from his wrist. “My apologies. I am aware that you are incapable of communicating with me without the use of cards such as this.”

Such cards were not that hard to generate, in all honesty. They were merely of the second tier. Yet, the fact that this world did not utilize them once again lowered his view of them.

“I see, so that’s what it is.” The organic nodded his head, and the golem noted a small twitch in his eye. “Sorry, we are used to using a different method of translation. Though, I believe that this could be considered more convenient, in a way.”

“Ah, it is good that you have your own means.” The golem understood after the explanation that they weren’t entirely uneducated, merely that they had followed a different path. “In an effort to expedite negotiations, I must first determine the level of civilization for this world known as Deckan. Are you familiar with the creator’s level assignment system?”

The organic looked… confused, or perhaps frustrated. “I assume that you don’t mean the levels of classes, such as scholar or engineer?”

“Correct. However, the fact that you are aware of that system has raised your grade marginally. Within the world we come from, we are the only known entities with access to that level system. But, to explain, the level assignment system allows us to determine the advancement of a civilization through a series of achievements that they have made.”

“From your guardsmen, I could tell that you are capable of manufacturing metal, and imbuing it with arcane properties. This places you at a minimum of level four. For reference, the maximum level within the system handed down by the creator was ten, which we have recently achieved.”

The organic let out a low groan, shaking his head. “Well, let’s start from the top, then. What’s the requirement for reaching level ten?”

“In order to reach level ten, a civilization must be capable of both planetary defense and planetary destruction through manufactured means.” As this was common knowledge among his people, the golem had no need to hide this information.

“Planetary destruction, huh?” The organic fell into thought at that. “We haven’t tried to build anything capable of destroying planets. There hasn’t been the need to. But for the other…” Clearly, the organic was not as open to discussing their technology level.

“Then, I shall assume you to be at a level nine standard, under the assumption that planetary defenses are available in this world. Very good, we now have a reference for negotiations.” The golem was quite pleased at learning this information. Not just because his own race was more advanced, that didn’t entirely factor into it.

Simply the act of being able to assess the other party’s level was something to be proud of. It meant that he had a basic understanding of how to proceed. A civilization at level nine was fit to be treated as equals to the March.

“Now that we have that taken care of, I would like to begin the necessary explanations in order to introduce you to the world that I originate from.” The golem expressed, his joy evident in his tone rather than his expressionless face.

“I come from the world known as Aquilo Prime, the forgeworld where our race was founded. As a fully established forgeworld, it was once rich in materials, which are now being imported from offworld mining sites. With your permission, I would like to present a demonstration of goods that could be offered in trade.”

The organic seemed to consider the idea, before tilting his head forward briefly. It was only when the golem failed to do anything that he realized that the gesture was lost on him. “You may proceed.”

“Wonderful.” The golem slotted the card back into his left wrist, before retrieving another one. This card had the image of a small box on it, and he set it down on the table in front of him. As he was unable to use both cards at the same time, he did not bother speaking.

When he activated the card, a small portion of the table began to glow. Once this glow had faded, there were new grooves along the table that had never been there before, as well as hinges. The golem simply reached down to grab a handle that had similarly appeared, and lifted it up.

The surface of the table opened as if it had always been designed to do so, and he stuck his hand inside to retrieve something. Curiously, the organic stuck his head beneath the table to confirm that the golem’s hand was not truly passing through. As he lifted himself back up, he saw that the golem had pulled five items out of the strange storage space.

Of the five, three of the items were metal ingots. One very clearly gold, one that appeared to be orichalcum, and the last one… the organic didn’t seem to recognize. Interesting… the golem thought to himself when he noted the look of confusion on the organic’s face.

Of the last two items, one was a card made of the same strange metal as the third ingot, while the last one was a flask with a bluish liquid. After closing the storage space and retrieving the card, he once again began to translate himself for the organic.

“From left to right, these are gold, orichalcum, dimensium, a modular fusion card, and an item we have found beneficial to you organics. The great system refers to it as a healing potion.”

“I’m familiar with potions.” The organic nodded, looking closer to the middle of the lineup. “Those two… dimensium, was it? And that card. Could you explain a bit about those?”

“I see… I detected readings of dimensium in this planet, but perhaps it is too deep for your mining efforts? The background radiation at this location is quite powerful. Regardless, dimensium is the foundation for all cards. It is through basking in its ambient energy that items are capable of assuming a card form.”

“Similarly, it may be used to enhance dimensional properties, or create empowered card products. For instance, the storage space which I just demonstrated was created using a dimensium pulse.”

“Alternatively, this modular fusion card is a product of refined dimensium itself. By adding in spell components, it functions as a fusion card for any within it. In order to alter the fusion, one must simply remove a component card or replace it. This allows us to prevent the loss of components due to a wasteful fusion.”

The organic clearly tensed up when he heard these words. Both that there was a metal within their own world that they were unfamiliar with, as well as this new type of fusion card. It must be considered that fusion cards were fairly rare, and several were often required in order to create a single high level spell. Their demand always outweighed the supply, which was why they were the first type of card to be mass produced with Card Synthesis.

“I think we would like to study this card… and the metal you brought with you. Can you think of anything in particular that you would want in trade?” It was hard to list the products that could be delivered when one was unprepared, so the golem did not hold it against the organic. Rather, he already had something he wanted to ask for, and thought it would be awkward without first getting permission.

“The two guns of your soldiers outside.” He spoke simply. “I noticed their design while they were being aimed at me, and I believe that it would be a satisfactory trade for a small quantity of dimensium, as well as a single modular fusion.”