Star Wars: The Earthling Gamer

Chapter 14 - The Merchant

It didn't take long to find Calo. He wore an obnoxiously large backpack, and had a small shop set up next to him, with his mountain of stock. He was this tiny dude with shaggy brown hair, hazel eyes, and a manic grin that was almost contagious.

"Ah, Mana told me about you. Our little newcomer trio's leader! I'm Calo. As you already know, I'm a merchant, with some very unusual stock. It comes and goes often, but if you're looking for something odd or rare, I'm your man. So, what do you need?" His voice was oozing excitement as he clasped one of my hands tightly to shake it.

"You've got quite a grip there, Calo. Pleasure to meet you." I greeted. "Now, I'd been looking for a lens strong enough to focus concentrated light and energy. Say, if I were looking to build a weapon not dissimilar to a lightsaber from Star Wars. Something like that." I requested. His grin grows instantly, and I almost couldn't help but adopt a smaller, similar smile at his enthusiasm. "Ha! It's like it was meant to be! Someone had given me this peculiar thing here this morning, saying I'd be needing it before the day's done, and here we are!" He explains, digging around his pile, pulling out a lens, looking almost perfect for my purposes.

"How much for it?" I ask, queueing up a previous quest reward for money. "Ah, price doesn't matter, my new prized customer! Mana's left me a rather large sum to cover for any purchases you might make. Mana was quite right to pick you, it seems!" He says, an odd trace of humor dancing in his eyes. Part of me wanted to ask what was so funny, then I figured I could probably ask Mana later, if it really bothered me that much.

He handed me the lens, and I dismissed the quest reward I queued up, and, not even caring if he saw, I dropped the lens in my inventory. "Ooh, spatial magic. That's interesting. The more I see of you, the more and more impressed I am with Mana." He says, curiosity shining in his voice. "I should be going, Calo. I have other business to attend to. It's been a pleasure meeting you, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you again before too long." I say, hurriedly shaking his hand and retreating to the elevator before he could do something crazy by testing my abilities or something.

Once I got in the elevator, I tried to remember what Mana said. The last floor was the forge, I think. After a moment, I found myself in an absolute marvel of architecture. It was like a mixture of steampunk, Greek, and modern architecture combined into one piece seamlessly. It shouldn't have looked good, but whoever designed this level pulled it off. I scurried to a workbench, and continued poring over my almost-finished saber.

After what felt like an eternity of me fitting the personal crystal, and meticulously sliding the lens into the right place, it was done. I hit the button, and a 3 foot long purple blade shot out of the hilt, humming quietly. I waved it around carefully, and was satisfied when it cut a corner of an anvil off. I darted back to the elevator, and went up to the training arena, where I found dummies galore. It was like a dream.

It was, once again, an odd mix of architecture. Like the Coliseum of Rome, crossed with a theater, among other things I couldn't quite put my finger on. I lunged towards a dummy, and its head got sliced off by the saber. I felt like Calo in a large pile of peculiar ends and odds. That is to say, excited beyond all comprehension. That's when the dummies started moving, circling around me. Some with bows, some with swords, even a few with guns.

I saw that the arrow tips were blunt, and presumed the swords were fake, and that the guns had blanks in them. So, in other words, I charged in about as recklessly as a Jedi Guardian would, despite my role of Consular. I didn't let anything hit me. I was rolling, strafing, deflecting, redirecting the arrows with the Force, alongside the bullets. It was a rush. As I tore down the final dummy, I heard the elevator ding.

"Impressive." A calm voice said. I turned to find Mana. "Yeah. It's taken me a long time to build this thing, and I've been practicing with our best duelist in the group." I say with pride. "Men and their weapons." Mana huffed. "I'd been saying it was impressive how you took to destroying all the dummies. Step out of the arena." She continued. Once I stepped out, she knocked four times on a panel attached to the wall.

The arena fell away, and returned moments later with new dummies. My mouth fell open. I knew this place was hi-tech, but this blew me away. "How long have you been planning to get us?" I asked. "Maybe two weeks after you three got to the hotel." She answered while I was finishing my question. I already regretted letting her read my mind. "Rude." She says abruptly. "You're proving the point of my inner monologue. Shut up." I complain.

She shrugged, a small smile gracing her face. "Now where's the fun in that, hm?" She responded. "Anyways, I heard from Calo. I hear that he's excited to see what you bring to our operation here. But I did have another reason to come down here and speak with you." She continues.

At my curious glance, she continued. "Here. We'd found a way to harness some of the power from the Empowered, and it adapts to the user's powers. We figured the one thing you'd really need with Force Powers is a minimap, simply put, but it also enhances your powers. For the minimap, this sends out sonar signals around you to map out what's in your vicinity, and you can turn it on and off at will, but it should pop up when you call for it." She finished, handing me what looked like a wristwatch.

"Thanks, Mana." I grin, putting it on. I tried calling for the minimap, and it showed me the layout of this room. "Now, I've got business elsewhere, but I figured you might need that to get around. Our complex is massive, and we understand you might not want phones with you at all times, otherwise we'd send you a map." She explains, walking back to the elevator with me.

I step off at the homes, and I see Hazel and Kara sitting on a bench on Kara's porch. I wave, and start walking back to my home. I figured Kara might need more time, so why push, you know? I dropped my lightsaber into my inventory, and disabled the minimap.

I quickly got ready for bed, as I figured I'm gonna have an early day tomorrow to explore. For the first time in a couple of months, I flopped over onto my own bed. I stayed awake for a while, just laying there, thinking, until I fell into a dreamless sleep for the first time in what felt like forever.

~~~

First update in a while, I know. Again, I was taking a bit of a break to keep writing more chapters in advance. Sorry that this chapter was so short. Hope everyone's been doing alright! Gonna do a double update, and talk more in the A/N there.