[Gold]

A very tired and dirty Son K finds his way back to the academy grounds after being deep within the silverwall mines for a year and a half. His fingers were larger, more rugged, he found some difficulty holding onto his pencil for a little bit, and then? Bits of metal break away revealing his slender little monkey digits. 

"Ah, almost forgot about that.. I feel a few pounds lighter from that alone.."

He says as more metal bits drops onto the floor clanging and skipping across Bang's clean dorm room. With a minor inspection of the room before he cracked opened his journal, he could tell someone had been in here.. who was it?

The Iron Ape

I planned to stay in hiding, practicing my abilities a bit with my recent mastery of metal.. changing my aptitude for something a bit more resilience through hard work and dedication. Now that I'm more durable, I've got to fill the role of the great ape. I want to be on the front lines for those dear to me. My own desires fall in line with their own when my role is simply a protector, even if that means eventually protecting them from themselves.

The plan was to stay within the caverns deep beneath the mines for two years.. 1847 and part of 1848 I spent researching minerals within the caverns. Their durability, their uses.. I wanted to master my control over the earth and it's minerals and metals. My thoughts were simply put after doing a bit of research, thinking about what I could do with each ore that was available to myself during my time away. So I made notes mentally of what I wanted to save from my findings.

Copper is highly conductive but too soft to prevent a vampire bite, Iron is in abundance, but fairly weak as well. With a little mojo I can turn it into steel, it helps with ensuring I'm not rusted in my metal form but the weight is still an issue. Adamantite works to match the durability, and most people often overlook it I see. The only advantage I could think up was it's weight, I could make myself into some sort of battering ram or cannon ball into the enemies quarters coated in that stuff. I couldn't really think up any other uses for it. Blue mercury is great for enhancing my speed in metal form, lightening my frame but allowing me to quickly adapt to most situations with some armor to coat minor blows, paired with a bit of steel and I've got a pretty solid unit to move around in. Orichalium however, is too soft.. it does wonders with melding more ores to my frame, it helped me grow quicker when I utilized its magic enhancing capabilities when I went to collect from the earth from one place I remained in while the ores I could easily locate came to me adding to my work in progress. Mithril.. it's nice, pretty to look at, and it's very hard as well. I'd say it's something I'd clad myself in if I were a knight, but it is too hard to get a hold of because of the constant miners collecting it. Tyrium..? That stuff is pretty radical, I enjoy thinking up uses for it, like crafting makeshift mana collars or spikes to shoot at enemies to slow their mana circuits or restrain them after the fact. My favorite thing? Nyeshk, it's durable, heavy, and delivers nasty blows when I add it to my staff and swing it down quickly.. the weight and my own strength? It could easily shatter mountains!

I didn't have any luck with those special metals, but maybe I could find uses for them if I ever got ahold of them.. before I went into the caves I gave Captain Auxis my only bit of arcanium. I don't know nothing bout it either, but maybe when I find him I could see what it's like on my frame. 

I tried battling against the inhabitants of the mines, using what I could to deter them and incapacitate them. I didn't actually try to slay any, I only wanted to see just how well it'd hold up! Against the magpawn I rose copper spikes to areas infront of me in their line of sight, it was a makeshift lightning rod, taking in their bolts and redirecting them into the earth below. For the crellus, steel and adamantite held up nicely against their poisonous waves, the steel held firm with the first few tries, the adamantite not so much. I couldn't really think of much at first against the babline and their lightning fast whips, but the blue mercury around my legs? It helped with dodging most of them, I paired that with my already nimble body to be able to dodge them at point blank! It was a lot harder at first with other metals but blue mercury did it's job.  The only other beast I tried my hand at was the kaor down below, nyeshk could parry most blows, but I realized I needed all of the nyeshk and adamantite in the area to make my arms bigger, my chest bigger, until I became a great metal ape ready to battle! The process was pretty slow though.. the nyeshk is pretty heavy. The orichalium sped the process up bringing the jet black metals to my aide quickly. The kaor was pretty tough, so I let it whack me a few times, the nyeshk held up against that giant blade time and time again until fissures finally formed infested with occult. That's when I had to stop, breaking my shell away and finishing it off in my blue steel unit.

It's been a pretty slow but knowledgeable time down there, but now I'm back.. I've got to find Rufus and Mitsuhide.. I'm sure those two will let me know if I'm lacking anywhere! I wonder if Bang is still around campus anyway.. I heard he got a house with his wife recently.. is a year and some change long enough for him to have started a family? I think so.. I should get him a stroller!

- Son K.

Closing his journal and putting it away, the young primate gathers the metals he left behind and added them to his form as he walked out of the shared dorm room in search of practice now.