After a while, Mule was reassigned to another group. Since Leo worked so swiftly, he needed stronger haulers. The foreman assigned him three of the strongest haulers he had to keep up with Leo's workload.
"Mr. Leo, us three will take this load up top. We should be back shortly," said one of the haulers.
Leo stopped working and gave him a slight. Watching the three leave, Leo stared at the tunnel around him. Even though he couldn't cultivate, his study of the rock and ores increased by great bounds. He also trained his mace technique using the pickaxe.
All of a sudden, he felt a rumble. "What was that?" wondered what just happened to cause the pit to shake.
Mule ran down Leo's tunnel, screaming. "Leo! Leo, come quick. A tunnel caved in trapping five miners."
Leo threw the ax onto his shoulder and ran after Mule. Mule leads him down many winding tunnels until they got down to the lowest shaft. A crew had been working there way down to create a new area to mine.
Several boulders blocked the path further. Leo heard screaming and knew he had to get through.
"Mule, have men bring at least four support beams. What are you doing staring at me? Hurry!"
Mule finally snapped at the terror of the voices he was hearing. As he ran off, Leo placed his hands on all the walls to feel its integrity. Soon Mule returned with a few miners carrying posts.
Leo directed where to place the beams and told the men to stand back. He then started to hack away at the bottom corner of the boulder pile. Slowly but surely, he opened a small opening to the other side.
"I'm going to crawl through and help the men on the other side. Make sure those beams don't give in."
"Mr. Leo, you can count on us," responded one of the miners.
"Yeah, what he said," said another.
"Be safe," shouted Mule holding onto a pillar with another man for dear life.
Leo nodded in satisfaction and started to crawl. On the other side, he found two men trapped and another knocked out. He picked up the lantern on the other side and moved it to the rubble.
"Don't move too much. I'll get you out of there." Leo said to the man as he looked at Leo like an angel.
"You came for us," whispered the other man.
Leo turned to look at him and said, "Of course, we are fellow miners." Leo then looked down at the man who couldn't talk anymore due to blood oozing from his mouth. If left any longer, the man would choke on his own blood due to the boulder crushing his gut.
Leo moved the large rock off of him using his pickaxe as a prybar. He slid the man out and placed him on his side. Leo then went to help the other man whose leg was trapped. He attended to the man. The miner got his foot unstuck and was told him to crawl through the gap.
Dragging the gut crushed miner to the hole, Leo pushed him through, and the leg injured miner pulled him through. A cracking sound was heard, and rocks started to fall. Reacting quickly, Leo shoved his pickaxe into the gap to use it as a support beam.
The boulder stopped falling, but noises started to echo within the cave. Leo's intuition told him the entire cave was about to collapse. Leo ran over to the unconscious man and picked him up.
Running back to the gap, Leo chucked the man through yelling, "Grab him."
The leg injured miner grabbed him and pulled him. The unconscious man's foot clipped the pickaxe causing the gap to cave in on its self. The miner barely had enough time to save him before the rocks crushed him.
The foreman just arrived and yelled, "Get the fuck out of here the whole tunnel about to cave in."
"But...but Mr. Leo in there." Mule replied with a holler.
"I said evacuate! Now!" angerly shouted the foreman. He didn't want to lose any more men today.
Seeing his exit blocked off, Leo looked up to see the roof falling in on him. He ran in the opposite direction until he came to the end of the newly dug tunnel. He braced himself against metal support and a minecart. Rock and earth fell all around him.
As the dust settled, there was a little area left around Leo. Only a twelve by twelve area of air remaining.
As the escaping miners panicked, many of the bottom tunnels caved in on themselves. Mule looked around and felt sad. They lost several men in the evacuation, including Leo.
Leo knew he couldn't freak out. He calmed himself and looked at his surroundings. At the same time, he slowed his breathing entering an almost meditative state.
"What is that near the wall?"
Standing up, Leo walked over to the wall and picked up a crystal. "This is a mana crystal!" Leo said with joy. The gem the size of his finger sparkled in his hand.
Leo sucked in the little bit of mana. It felt like his body was a dry wasteland and just received a light shower. After the excitement disappeared, Leo realized that the drop of mana wouldn't allow him to do much.
He wouldn't be able to escape with it or allow him to live longer. He then looked at the mine cart and knew what he needed to do. Controlling the little bit of mana, he shattered the crystal and spread it among the bottom of the cart. He then used his last bit of energy to open a tiny hole in the ground as deep as he could.
He flipped the cart over to act as a mana trap. Now all Leo could do is hope he can trap in enough mana before he dies of suffocation or dehydration.