It's Elemental!

It's Elemental, Mission

Morning came as it usually did. Kaito woke up gazing at the old familiar ceiling while light playfully danced against the eyelids that had just been shut not a moment ago, and it felt as though he had just fallen asleep the minute before. When nights were lapses in existence, jumping from laying down in the bed to being roused from slumber by the sunlight, Kaito couldn’t tell if it was a blessing or a curse that he no longer had dreams.

Well, except that one dream.

On the night of the little girl invasion, he had a very weird dream. So much so, he didn’t even remember any of it. He remembered only feeling conflicted when he woke up, but by the time he had gone to the door to pick up the scroll some ninja had left, the ethereal essence of the dream had dissipated, and though the sentiment lingered, the memory faded.

But, alas, life moved on. The little girl was now imprisoned in some hospital room, tied to machines and IV drips, kept alive at the cost of her liberty. This money came off the pockets of Kumogakurian taxpayers, but it was a worthy price. She would find no mercy in the village, and if her existence had been so bad she had wanted to kill herself in a blaze of glory against the Cloud Ninja, she would be denied the sweet release from the mortal coil, and instead be forced to live for as long as her tiny heart kept beating within her chest.

Some people thought Kaito was merciful for not killing the little girl. But he knew exactly what he had done, and what he had condemned her to.

A couple of hours later, after eating, washing himself, combing his hair and brushing his teeth, he stepped into sunny Kumo in his black garb and eyepatch, ready to meet the rest of his team for this day of assisting the folks down in Kumo’s mines. He made towards the gates, where he would await the rest of his crew.

===
WC: 346

Anaphiel's stats for the mission:

It was another day in Kumogakure. Nothing really special about today. The weather was fine, the village was as safe as it always was, and Anaphiel woke up as he normally did; shortly after sunrise as the light started to fill his room. He sat up and looked outside for a moment or two before getting out of bed and starting his normal routine of getting cleaned up, getting dressed and making breakfast.

As he sat down at the kitchen table, food in hand, he noticed that there was some letters at one corner. ‘Tel must have grabbed the mail.’ He thought to himself as he ate. The Hidemori Chuunin pulled the letters over to him and started sifting through them. About 3 down was a mission request, addressed to him, so he put the rest down and opened it immediately. Turned out not to really be too serious. The local mine wanted assistance with acquiring Tungsten Ore. It showed the location of the mine, the meeting point for their group and the time they were to meet up for the start of the mission. Strangely though, there was no list of who else would be on the mission with him. Anaphiel shrugged; it’s not like it mattered, he would work with anyone he was told to work with. The mission itself was not something that he would normally be called on to assist with, but ryo was ryo, and it’s not like he was exactly rich. He shrugged again and tucked the request into a pocket before finishing off his meal.

Food out of the way, Anaphiel would clear his place, and leave his home, making his way to the main gate to meet up with the rest of his assigned group for this mission. Turned out that at least part of his last mission’s team would be there; Kaito was already waiting at the gates. In all honesty, Anaphiel wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Sure, they got along during their last mission, if you could call it that. One mission did not a friendship make but who knows, perhaps if they got thrown together enough, he may eventually open up to the shorter man.

As he entered speaking range, Anaphiel would raise a hand in greeting and say, “good morning. Is it just us or are we expecting more people to arrive? The mission request wasn’t exactly clear on who would all be here.”

WC: 408


[size=13]AP Spent
-5 AP: Hidemori Physiology

WC: 117
TWC:  463
/exit
463 words towards Sharingan: Genjutsu

Approved. If you can specify which rank of Sharingan Genjutsu you're training next time it would be a blessing.

There was that name again, Beanstalk. Why did it feel like that would be how people referred to him in the village from now on. On the positive side, it meant that potentially people in the village were more accepting of him. In any event, Kaito had confirmed that it would just be the two of them…until someone else showed up and told his teammate that he was required at the Raikage’s office immediately. Unfortunately, that meant that he would have to finish this mission off by himself it seemed. Anaphiel would sigh inwardly and nod before saying “good luck,” and watching Kaito and the other shinobi depart.

‘I guess there’s no point in delaying then.’ Anaphiel thought to himself as he turned to face the massive gates that protected the main entrance to Kumogakure. Setting his shoulders, the Hidemori Chuunin would make his way over to the gates and pass through them, exiting the city. He’d never been to the mines that supported Kumogakure, but the mission request had included directions on how to get there so it would be easy enough for him to get there. What he was slightly more concerned about was the path to the mines, and what may be in between, as there is always the possibility that bandits, a missing ninja, or some fearsome beast could attempt to waylay him on his path. It wasn’t unheard of for these things to occur, especially to a lone shinobi. Luckily for him should things get dicey he could just teleport himself to Rayoralia. That would solve the initial problem, but if he wanted to return from Rayoralia, it would be right at the point he’d left, which could still be under threat from those that would wish him harm. It was all theoretical of course, the path could be clear the entire trip.

Most of the mines that serviced the village were up in the mountains, since that was where most of the valuable minerals formed. It was no surprise that the Tungsten mine would be there too, so that’s the direction that Anaphiel was headed. The trip wasn’t going to be the longest he’d been on, but on par with a couple he’d had so far. The first leg of the journey, once leaving the walls of Kumogakure, was a dense forested region that made for perfect ambush territory. Luckily for him the Hidemori Chuunin has Baioregan, which will most definitely come in handy for alerting of any potential assault in advance of it taking place. His worries were unfounded though as the forest itself did not provide any form of engagements that he had to worry about. The forest itself was quite lovely, the trees were a mix of different types, mainly coniferous trees like pine, spruce, cedar. The air was laden with the sounds of animals going about their day; chipmunks, squirrels, birds of all colours, even some larger animals like a badger or fox. It was incredibly peaceful to walk through and simply enjoy the beauty of nature. Of course that beauty wouldn’t last, but it was replaced by a different type of beauty.

After passing through the trees, he’d arrived at the foothills that lead up to the mountains where the mines were located. They in themselves held a beauty entirely different. A quiet majesty, piercing the sky, solemn and graceful, yet inherently deadly as well. Not just because of what lived in the mountains, but the towering spires of rock themselves held their own hazards to the unwary. Anaphiel didn’t have too much farther to go, as they weren’t deep in the mountains. Larger, more predatory birds watched him from ledges and he had spotted a couple goats bounding up the side of a steep rocky slope. It always amazed him how incredible nature could be.

Eventually he reached the fortified walls that marked the entrance to the main mining complex. It consisted of several large buildings, presumably to house workers and structures for processing and sorting ore and other valuable materials. Dotting the rock faces were mine shaft entrances, some were labelled, others were not. Anaphiel was stopped at the main entrance by the gate guards, who let him though upon seeing his credentials. He made his way over to the primary administrative building to speak with the foreman on duty. They sat down together and went over the details of the mission. “So basically you’re here to help us mine a particularly valuable material, it’s called Tungsten,” the foreman said to Anaphiel, who nodded in response. “The last vein we’d found has run dry, so we need your help finding another vein and then to get the mining process started.” “Sounds simple enough,” Anaphiel said to the foreman. “What should I be looking for?” The foreman’s eyes lit up, clearly enjoying the conversation. “There are four main ores that yield tungsten,” he would start off by saying, laying some stones out in front of him. “Scheelite and Wolframite are the two main ores we look for when searching for tungsten as they provide the most tungsten per kilo or ore mined.” As he said this, he would indicate two of the four rocks. “Wolframite ranges from black or greyish black to brown, is opaque and is slightly metallic. Scheelite is more varied; it can be tan to dark brown, golden to pale yellow, brownish yellow, reddish yellow, greenish, colorless or white. A way you can confirm for sure is by taking one of these streak plates…” he would pick up a 30 centimeter by 30 centimeter piece of unglazed porcelain “and rub the ore against it. If it’s Wolframite, it will leave a reddish brown streak on the plate. If it’s Scheelite, it will leave a white streak on the plate.”

Anaphiel made sure to note this information down as it was sure to be important, and he wanted to make sure that he was doing the job he was assigned to do. “What about the other two ores you mentioned?” Anaphiel asked, pointing to the last two. “Great question,” the foreman said. “The last two are Ferberite and Hübnerite. They have a lower concentration of tungsten than Wolframite and Scheelite but still worth looking for. Both are dark red-brown to black crystals. Ferberite will leave a brownish black streak and Hübnerite will produce either a yellow to reddish brown streak, or a greenish gray one.” That covered the most important information related to the ore, they would go over the rest of the process once ore had been located and extracted. For now, the foreman pointed out a few different mineshafts that were their best guesses at where some of this ore could be located. He was also assigned one of the mine workers to help confirm whatever he found so that they spent as little time chasing down false leads as possible.

WC: 1147
TWC: 1555

The first mineshaft that Anaphiel and the mine worker had examined was a shorter shaft, being only 20 meters long at that point. They were all shored up the same way, with timbers to create bracing which helped prevent the tunnels from collapsing. This one appeared to be a recently excavated mineshaft as it was just the primary shaft and no secondary shafts had been dug yet. It was a blank slate that the two of them could explore, at least as far as the tunnel was dug. Anaphiel was advised to be meticulous in his examination of the mineshaft. Even the smallest trace could be worth investigating, for even a small shard of ore could mean that much more of it was hidden inside the walls of the shaft. And so began the examination of the first mineshaft; Anaphiel and his helper started from the entrance and worked their way in, slowly examining every centimeter of the walls and floor in the hopes of finding any of the ores that they were after. The entire process took them several hours, and unfortunately this mineshaft did not contain any of the minerals that contained Tungsten. They did however find traces of other useful ores, so the mine worker marked their locations in the mineshaft and what type of ore it was so that other teams could come by later to start extracting the valuable materials that was hidden inside the rocky walls. Since this mineshaft was a bust for what they were looking for, it was time to move on to the next mineshaft.

The second mineshaft was only slightly longer at 25 meters in length. It did have three side shafts that were barely dug out, only five to ten meters at the longest. It gave them more area to search, but a greater chance of finding the ores they were after. While it would likely slow down the process, they opted to stick together and work on the same areas as a team. Anaphiel has sharp eyes and could pick out minute details that most would miss, and the mine worker would have the experience to tell the difference between a false trail and the genuine article. Splitting up would mean the potential for missing things, which would be more time exhausting than simply working together, so that’s what they did. Starting from the entrance and working their way down the shaft, they would stop at any branching paths and search them before moving further down the main shaft. The first branch yielded nothing, but the second branch had traces of Scheelite, which was a good sign. They marked the location and kept going, finding only one other trace in that branch. The last shaft held nothing, as did the rest of the main shaft. The pair grabbed some tools and went to see if the traces they found in the second branch shaft had any merit. Pickaxes carved into the rock, revealing slightly more Scheelite, but their victory would be short-lived; the traces of Scheelite were just that, traces. There wasn’t anything of value in the walls outside of a couple small chunks of ore. It seemed it was time to move on.

There were only two other mineshafts that were worth investigating, so the pair decided to look at the largest of the mineshafts that were recommended. It was a monster; the main shaft being 100 meters long, with several branches that had their own branching shafts. This shaft was actively being mined for other minerals as well, but based on the amount of area to search, it would likely be their best bet at finding at least some of ore types they were looking for. The process was going to take them a good number of hours to even search a small section of this mineshaft, but that was the mission and they would complete it to the best of their abilities. The first couple mineshaft sections held nothing of use to them. They had finally hit a stroke of luck on one of the smaller branch shafts, finding a vein of Wolframite. They marked it down and moved on, since it’s not like the ore was going to go anywhere. The next shaft over yielded more positive results. A couple veins of Scheelite and Ferberite were located and marked. At the very least now they had enough potential material locations to start excavating the ore, and based on the information the mine worker had been given from the foreman, this should be enough to meet the current requirements. With that in mind, Anaphiel and the worker set about extracting the ore from its rocky confinement.

WC: 781
TWC: 2226

With the discovery of the veins, they were able to acquire some additional help in the form of a few more miners. All armed with pickaxes, they started digging into the rock around the ore, so as to not fracture the precious metal ore into small pieces that would be hard to collect. The miners would point out the best way to hold the pickaxe, as well as the best spots to aim when digging out materials. Since Anaphiel was not used to this type of work, the pointers and feedback were very helpful and prevented a lot of potentially wasted material. Even with the tips though, it took a significant amount of time to extract even a small amount of ore. The material they were mining was dense, and Anaphiel wasn’t a particularly strong person. The physical activity did him good though. It took them about four hours to mine out enough of the ores to make the ingots they needed.

Once that was done, Anaphiel and the miners collected the ore and moved it into a cart to transport it over to the processing facility which would convert it from the ore into pure tungsten. Well, as pure as they could currently get it. There was nothing for him to do during the actual processing of the ore, but he got to watch, which was educational all in itself. The ore is crushed to a fine powder, and then mixed into a special compound whose name currently escaped him. That compound is heated and other additives are added to the mixture to separate the components of the ore into the baser materials. Eventually over the course of several hours, the liquid is sent to a special machine to crystalise where it is then crushed into powder and sent through several furnaces where at the end, pure tungsten powder, or as close to pure as they can get, is collected and smelted into ingots. The metal itself took a while to cool, and only then was it ready to be shipped to Kumogakure to be used how the village needed. That was not his job though, that would be up to someone else to deliver, likely along with other supplies. With his work done, he gathered his things and left the processing building, heading back over to the mine’s office where he would talk to the foreman about the mission’s completion.

The foreman was incredibly thankful for the assistance Anaphiel was able to provide with locating and mining the valuable tungsten ore, especially since it was very much needed by the village. As a thank you for his assistance, the mine’s foreman offered him a bar of tungsten, which the Hidemori Chuunin gratefully accepted. Not quite knowing what he would do with it, he placed it away, to determine how he could best make use of it. His mission now complete, Anaphiel would leave the office, and head out the main gates of the mine, heading back to Kumogakure.

WC: 500
TWC: 2726

The return trip to Kumogakure was very different from when he left this morning. For one thing, it was nighttime, so the light to see was almost non-existent. Luckily for Anaphiel, his Baioregan allowed him to “see” with no problem, thanks to the way it mapped out the area around him with his chakra. He still had to be wary due to the fact that the area is just as dangerous at night, if not more so. As if to validate that statement, a wolf howled a little too close for comfort. The sound always raised hairs on the back of his neck, even though he could very easily take on a wolf.

It was a great relief to Anaphiel when the gates of Kumogakure finally came into view, the massive walls and fortifications provided him with a sense of comfort. The guards stopped him as per usual, and he showed them his ID and mission report, showing that he had just come back from the mines up in the mountains. Once he was safely back inside the village, the Hidemori Chuunin would make his from the gates back to his home. He took his time, now that he was back in the village, enjoying the sounds and sights of Kumo at night. The lights were still on at home when he arrived. He was surprised that Telantes had stayed up that late. ‘She must have been worried,” he thought to himself. He had been out for basically all day on what was supposed to be a fairly simple mission.

She was asleep at the table when he got inside. He chuckled as he walked over to his sister, picked her up out of her chair, and carried her up to her bedroom to tuck her into bed. He’d get some rest himself and write up the mission report in the morning.

[EXIT]

WC: 312
TWC: 3038

Will make claims later

Claims:

6000 ryo (mission reward)
250 ryo (chuunin bonus)
30AP (mission Reward)

30 AP
2500WC towards Storm Release: Laser Circus (A-Rank, 2500/2500)
243 WC towards Storm Release: Energy Wave (A-Rank, 2500/2500) Proof of progress: here
295 WC towards Water Wall (295/1500)