Tika lowered his head and glanced at Amir, muttering, "Looks like two kids… not that easy to scam."
He said it "quietly," but didn't hide it at all. After saying it, Tika didn't even turn back—he just kept walking deeper inside.
Amir found it both irritating and funny, so he didn't bother responding. Jawas had always upheld their proud tradition of fleecing clueless customers, but if you paid even a little attention, they weren't as cunning as people imagined. If you got scammed, you could only blame yourself.
Amir wasn't going to fall for that, especially after running with Sane for so many years—he knew his stuff.
"Nothing! But come back tonight and I can get you one—guaranteed you'll be satisfied!" Tika said, flinging aside a piece of junk.
"Fine," Amir said. He gathered a few usable parts he'd picked out, had Tika set them aside, and planned to take them when he returned that night.
"Let's go, let's go!" Millisyn urged anxiously. The place was unbearable—she couldn't stand another second in there.
After leaving, Amir didn't put all his hope in one Jawa. He took Millisyn and kept wandering around Mos Eisley.
Walking and asking around, Amir didn't find any blacksmith-type shop. But he did find a metal foundry.
The moment he got close, he saw a cartload of scrap being hauled into the yard.
In a corner of the yard was a huge vat. Under it, a massive heating platform was blasting high-temperature flame. Inside the vat, red molten metal churned. It melted, separated, then flowed along channels into molds and cooled into ingots.
Amir's eyes lit up. The temperature here should be enough—except the setup was absurdly huge. His ship definitely couldn't fit something like that.
Still not giving up, Amir stepped up and asked, "Do you have a smaller heating furnace? I want to buy one."
"We do!" A Klatooinian worker roared, then pointed at the giant furnace in front of him. "This big furnace is made by combining a bunch of small furnaces together."
Then he glared at Amir with his yellow little eyes. "This is how I make my living. How much can you pay?"
Amir looked, thought for a second, and said, "Two thousand credits?"
"Heh. No. At least five thousand. Otherwise I'm not selling."
"This is used. Who knows if it's about to break. And even brand-new you wouldn't dare charge that much," Amir said, stunned. Is everyone here this good at ripping people off?
"That's the price. Don't want it? Walk," the boss said arrogantly. He looked like a canine, but had the heart of a barnyard chicken.
Amir gave the furnace one last look. Even if he bought only a module, it probably wouldn't meet his needs—and the price was disgusting. He could afford it, but he wasn't going to encourage that kind of predatory business.
He checked a few more places. The afternoon slipped away. Amir and Millisyn sat at the roadside, each with a cup of juice, waiting out the heat as the sky darkened.
"Alright. Last stop—Tika," Amir thought as he stood. "If he doesn't have it, I'll have to go back to the foundry and deal with that crook. If that fails, I'll ask Kaharlmann—he's installed so much chrome, he has to have casting gear."
Back at the familiar building, Tika was already waiting.
Seeing him, Amir felt a spark of hope. Did the little scavengers really manage to get something?
"Tika! You got the goods or not?" Amir asked.
"Got it, got it! Get in here!" Tika beckoned like a thief, all sneaky and excited.
What's so secret? Amir followed him inside.
"Look at this!" Tika said proudly, pointing at a cylindrical unit. "The most practical furnace there is. It can reach the melting point of almost any alloy. Before I got my hands on it, it was working at the foundry!"
Amir stepped up and touched it.
Hot.
"Let me guess—the foundry boss is a Klatooinian…"
"How'd you know…" Tika blurted automatically, then shuddered and stared at Amir with alarm. "I didn't. It wasn't me. Don't talk nonsense."
Amir laughed. "Heh. I know that boss. So tell me—what do I need to pay you to keep me from telling him what you did?"
Millisyn finally caught on too. "Th-this… hahahaha—hic! Cough… I'm dying!"
Tika started panicking. He still had to operate locally. Getting caught would be a real problem.
"O-okay… name your price."
Amir "calculated" with his fingers and said, "Since you worked so hard, I'll give you five hundred credits."
He'd originally planned to offer two or three hundred, but this whole situation had lifted his mood so much that he decided to be generous.
"Deal, deal!" Tika was thrilled. It was stolen anyway—anything he got was profit, and this was a great haul.
All the parts Amir had set aside earlier were tossed in as "bonus" and he took them for free—plus an anti-grav plate on top.
After hauling everything onto the Traveler, Amir returned immediately.
Night had only just fallen, and Amir's work efficiency was still high. He started assembling the furnace right away. Millisyn and No. 32 both came to watch.
Even though this was only one module from the larger furnace—a "small furnace"—it was still ridiculously large. Amir's workshop couldn't fit it, so he moved it into an empty storage bay, reinforced and modified the floor, and installed it there.
To sustain extreme temperatures, the furnace contained a large set of complex auxiliary components. What Amir really needed was the heat conversion system inside it—the part that could convert different forms of energy into heat.
After checking that system and confirming nothing was wrong, Amir started heavy modifications.
First, he installed a focusing unit to confine the heat output to a specific region. That improved heating efficiency and kept the ship from turning into a sauna.
Then he replaced the old circuitry, swapped in a few devices to boost output, and reassembled it all.
Finally, he sprayed it with a silver-white coating so it wouldn't look rusted and filthy.
By the time he finished, it was already late. Amir connected it to the Traveler's main power grid and, confident, activated the start sequence.
It didn't disappoint.
A thin flame rose above the furnace plate—beautiful golden fire. It looked small, but the distortion of the air above it warned that the temperature was anything but harmless.
In a short time, the edges of the furnace glowed red. Even standing outside the focusing unit's boundary, Amir could feel the rising heat.
When the temperature felt right, Amir placed a piece of beskar onto the furnace's high-temperature surface material. Not long after, the silvery metal began to redden—then it melted.
Seeing that, Amir smiled with satisfaction and cut the power.
Once he made molds, he could start building something interesting.
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STAR WARS: RELICS OF THE PAST
🌌⚔️ STAR WARS: RELICS OF THE PAST ⚔️🌌
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📢 THE FORCE CALLS AGAIN! 📢
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Ancient secrets, forgotten relics, Jedi echoes, and buried truths wait in the shadows of the galaxy.
✨ Some things were lost for a reason.⚔️ Some powers should never be awakened.🌌 And some stories begin long after history tried to erase them.
Follow the trail of ancient relics before the rest of the galaxy catches up.
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