"!!!" At first, everybody thought the rock did not cause any harm, and some boys even went to look out of curiosity.
It should be fine that what they taught, it was not like they gonna clumsily fell.
However, the hole somehow connected to an underground waterway and it was close enough to the depth where it contacted with hot rocks. The result was a geyser. It would be normal occurrence like natural phenomena at the estimated time, but that was not all the case a could change or cease its activity due to many reasons, it may be earthquake influences or human intervention.
This time it was human intervention. Just like a domino, the explosion from the top of the mountain could not reach this far deep but it was powerful enough to cause the rock to fall, that rock weighted over 1 ton fell from the height far enough to cause a bedrock under the hole to crack, a little crack would be nothing in other situations but the water was superheated, thereby resulting in an explosion of water and rock debris from below.
When the poor boy looked into the abyss, it was not the abyss that looked back.
The thing that was waiting for him was the discharge of hot water and steam spraying out with some rocks and debris. He was boiling with hot water but it was not like he would feel anything as the hydrothermal explosion already sent his body to the roof of this room and some debris crushing his body to the point that none could remember.
The other boys nearby was a lot luckier as they did not hit by the geyser, but some hot water still fell on them and cause some injuries that were not to the point of dying. A sound of water mixed with a cry from pain filled the air.
"!!!Nezha, what's that!!!" The girl talking with Nezha turn her face at the direction of the geyser and asked Nezha, though she did not expect any answer but more like asking because of surprise.
"A geyser may be." Nezha did not surprise with geyser, instead, he felt upset that they did not listen to his order. "They are stupid, and I tell them to not go near that area... let's go and look at those buffoons."
"Umm…" She did not see that one of those boys died but she guessed that there must be some who got injured. "Nezha, what is this smell? Ah! It is the same with that yellow powder I saw a long time ago. It got a unique smell when you open its box so I remember. I don't know why we brought this but I guess it was some kind of cosmetic, as the butler usually mixed it with water when he opens it."
"Hmm! Yellow powder? A cosmetic? But this smell weird, why would people use it as a cosmetic." Nezha did not think of sulfur at first and thought that the girl means some type of cosmetic made by grinding minerals or woods to powder.
What she was talking about was sulfur powder, well you could say that she was right as sulfur could be used as a cosmetic ingredient in ancient time.
As he was a young boy by physical age, it was already exhausted to climb down and he was on high alert because of tension for many hours. He could feel some danger if his mind was clearer but with all thing that happened today, he forgot.
While near the site of a volcano or other mineral site, sulfur gave a strong odor similar to rotten eggs but for elemental sulfur, the smell is not very strong, in fact, sulfur powder we use in school has a very light odor.
As several minutes passed, the geyser stopped and no one care about it, but some younger boys and girls started to get difficulty in breathing, while some showing symptom of nausea.
Nezha's mother who already weak by illness was also showed sign of hard breathing. It was around this time that Nezha began to notice some abnormal.
Because he was dog-tired, he did not think carefully. This place was on an inactive volcano, he could smell a faint smell of sulfur in the air but since the smell was not too strong or causing harm he did not care about it.
It should be fine like Nezha thought, but the crack was not open only for the water to gush out.
"Nezha, I think there is a problem. Many people start to act like they are poison."
"!!!" Nezha got back to the situation at hand after he was called by his cousin, he dozed off for a few seconds.
"What should we do?" She asked.
"I…I… I don't know." Nezha did not know what to answer, his thought went disarray.
"But they are suffering."
"Of course, I know! I guess something must be wrong with the air, ah! It's must be sulfur dioxide or anything like that. Anyway, let's move out to the tunnel first. You looking for anyone who can help and pair them with those that show the symptom. Throw everything that will lower our speed or heavy here, we need to hurry."
If it was poison gas, they need to evacuate at once. So, Nezha and co must moved to the tunnel that lead to the outside as fast as possible. There was no time for rest, who knew what would happen.
It was already bad with gas, what if the next was some explosion like a steam-blast eruption. That would be the end, for now, he needed to find a safe place for his mother.
Everybody began to follow Nezha's lead, they had to throw almost everything here as they were weaker to carry all those supplies, this included gold coin they received. They were young, and for them, their lives were too precious than this deadweight.
But some full-grown adult who was too greedy and strong enough to carry a lot of gold took as many as he could without helping those poor kids. He also gave his niece a just reason to make him look good stating that he needed to keep it for the future reconstruct of the clan.