Chuck put the key in the lock and turned it. A loud clicking noise echoed in the basement and the imposing vault door swung open silently on its own. Chuck gestured for Tess to go ahead of him, girls first after all. She smiled at him and entered while Fol waited outside the vault. He followed behind her but couldn’t see much until magic crystal lights started glowing. They illuminated a large room carved out of rock with shelves, tables, and racks filled with an assortment of items. Chuck didn’t know how he was supposed to choose out of the sheer amount of stuff. “Tess, let me know if you see anything that looks strange, like it might be from an otherworlder.” He asked, scanning the room. “Sure Chuck, leave it to me.” She replied happily. She was the only one that didn’t call him otherworlder, which he appreciated. Raz and Maz called him master which he was still uncomfortable with. He had given up on correcting them at this point.
There were various swords and other bladed weapons, shields, sets of armor, jewelry, paintings, statues, and other valuables. None of it was what Chuck was looking for. “What about this, doesn’t this look like one of your weapons?” Tess said from across the room. He hurried over and saw she was looking at something that resembled a large pistol or sub machine gun. It was definitely not something from Earth or this world and looked like a futuristic ray gun or laser blaster. Chuck could tell it didn’t fire projectile ammunition but a piece was missing. He studied it closely and guessed that it must be the power source that was missing. He sighed, it figured. He didn’t even know how it worked so had no way to fix it. “Thanks Tess. We’ll keep it in mind but let’s keep looking.” Chuck sighed again, putting the gun back down.
They continued to look around. “How does this look?” She asked, showing off a fancy necklace. “It looks great on you. But everything looks great on you.” He replied, winking at her and smiling. Tess stuck out her tongue and smiled back. Chuck was digging through a wooden box of miscellaneous items when he noticed something leaning against the wall. At first he thought it was just a broken metal spear. Upon closer inspection, it had a knob on it and a trigger. He had no idea what it did though. Chuck inspected the end and instead of the expected hollow barrel, there were metal protrusions that reminded him of a taser. Feeling more confident, he picked it up and carefully pulled the trigger, making sure it wasn’t aimed at anything but the wall. A crackling noise emanated from the tip. He fiddled with the knob which seemed to increase and decrease the voltage as the crackling sound got louder and softer. It was an interesting device but he didn’t think a glorified cattle prod would be very useful. He didn’t want to get that close to any of the creatures in this world.
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He examined it some more before putting it down and noticed another button by the handle. Chuck pushed it and the handle split open, exposing a cylindrical device that shocked him into silence. He cautiously pulled out the obvious looking futuristic battery and thought it just might work. He almost ran over to the gun and said a short prayer before picking it up. He slid the battery into the gun and it fit with a satisfying click. “Yes!” He cheered while Tess came over. “I found the missing part!” He said excitedly while inspecting the gun again. “So it works now?” She asked looking at the gun in his hand dubiously. “Hopefully, but I can’t test it here. This will be my pick. Do you want the necklace?” He asked, looking at the necklace that was still hanging around her neck.”Yup, not only does it look good but from the description on the paper that was with it, it creates a magical shield around the wearer.” She said, looking at the necklace proudly. “Wow, that is useful. Ok, let’s go then.” Chuck said, taking her hand and leaving the vault. He couldn’t wait to test the new weapon.