While looking through the artifacts screen for something worth stealing I noticed that a clown slab made of special metal was said to be located practically on top of my fort. Realizing this could only mean there was a vault nearby I got excited. I've never actually found one before so rather than send in the troops I created and dispatched an elephant man adventurer to bring me that slab.
My agent arrived at nightfall and just as I approached the entrance the bogeymen attacked. I was able to dispatch them with minimal injury but it was hardly a glorious start. Once I got inside one of the guardians, a soldier, attacked me immediately and I lured it outside facing it one on one and to my surprise had the size advantage. After defeating the soldier and picking up a few more injuries I had a realization. Even if I got the slab it was an artifact, I wasn't going to be able to melt it down for the metal. So I grabbed my fallen foe's weapon and armor which were made of the same metal and scurried back to my fort with the proper location of the vault, an armful of very special metal and one heavily mutilated trophy.
I put the corpse on display and ordered everything melted down. I'd never used the unlimited metal exploit because I never saw the need but I'm using it now. Melt, serrated discs, melt, discs, melt. I didn't quite realize how valuable it was until I saw my fortress produced two million worth in a season and a half. Obviously this will attract unwanted attention, the first FB in twelve years has already come as I was typing this, and a second..yeah this is going to get messy fast. I haven't even produced enough metal for one set of full gear and my goal is to train a special strike force equipped with the searing metal and subjugate that vault.