Ch 8: Exiting the facility and the world

As Euclid started walking down the halls towards the lost in found of the facility, he also check some of the offices for any clothes that had been left behind before Mana came to be, only finding a couple coats.

"Specking of Mana, I wonder what it is and how I would be able to interact with it, will I even be able to interact with it at all being as I'm a digital or robotic lifeform; and not a biological lifeform. Seeing as the flora in the surrounding area seemed to have changed since before Mana that means biological life can definitely interact with it; I wonder how."

As Euclid was talking to himself he stopped as he came to a closed door that required a password, but he just looked at the touch screen containing numbers before it glitched; seeming to result to the locked door opening.

Although Euclid wasn't contained inside the facilitys giant computer, and thus didn't have a way to access the entire facilitys network; with the door also being connected to the facilitys network, Euclid didn't need a direct connection; all he needs is a radiowave to connect to before he could tap into the buildings network and thus having just as much control as when he was inside his last container.

As Euclid walked into the large lobby area, which included the check-in, cafeteria, reclining area, he also found the lost-in-found so began jogging there finding a pair of brown shoes, denim pants, a dress shirt, and a thin tan sweater that has a duck holding a knife saying 'peace was never an option' on it that seemed to fit him; but no socks, finally done with getting some clothes, Euclid moved towards the door before pushing it open to reveal a forest with some parking spots.

Finally looking around at the forest Euclid first noticed it dark out there were some cars around, but because the Mana acting like an EMP most cars wouldn't work, but there were some bikes, so he decided to just ride one of those.

Begining to ride the bike was tricky but just required a little balance, but before long he was off riding down the broken pathway, until after about 15 minutes he came to a car that had ran into a tree looking into the driver seat window; he noticed a rotting body, Dr. Davids body,

"It seems he died when his car stopped working because of the EMP; leading to the crash, and either died on impact or died because of being introduced to Mana, anyways it sucks he died; but there's nothing I can do especially after he's been for a couple of days."

But just before Euclid was about to continue riding off, he and the bike were rammed from the side into the car leading to him being imbedded into the side of the car.

Looking up confused on what just collided with him we was met with a bear with brown fur standing on all fours before it moved to standing on its hind legs then seemed to roar with all its might at him

"ROOOAAAARRRRR"

"Well that was kind of rude; don't you think, also there is no reason to yell." Euclid muttered under his breath as he pulled himself out of the dented door with only some clothes ripped.

The bear seemed to understand him and became more furious, but was also curious how the human before it was perfectly fine, so this time it decided to rip the throat out and then harvest it's core; leading to the bear leaping on Euclid.

Euclid could see the bear jumping towards him inslow motion, but despite that he decided not to move; but to instead test his durability as he hasn't really tested his body in that department.

As the bear jumped on Euclid; forcing him on the ground, the bear dug its claw into Euclids new clothes in a attempt to rip his stomach open, while biting into Euclids neck.

*Clank!!..chip!*

For a second nobody moved, the bear just sat on top of Euclid confused on why he couldn't taste flesh and there was no blood in its mouth, while the bear could also not feel his claws ripping into the guts of its prey; before it finally realized that one of it teeth had shattered.

While the bear was just now understanding everything, Euclid was looking at the bear with it's maw around his neck and claws on his stomach while also hearing the crack and realizing what had happened, finding it interesting that the bears teeth and claws were so weak as to not even dent him; the nanites didn't need to reformed themselves at all, and they even absorbed the impact and sent the force back or turned the kinetic energy into potential energy.

"Alright buddy, you need to get off me now; I know it's shocking to see someone not only more durable but also break a few claws and teeth because of it, but I don't want to lay here all night, understand?"

As he finished talking to the bear he tapped the bear on the side to get its attention, and it seemed to work as the bear jumped up on its hind legs before it slammed it's front paws back down in a attempt to crush Euclid in a state of fury, and started do so repeatedly for an entire minute before getting off.

As the bear had been effected by Mana it had grown to be around 2000 pounds and 16 feet tall, plus the force the bear was stomping with; Euclid was about a foot in to the ground when the bear stopped.

Slowly Euclid started getting up; to the bears horror, as the bear had finally calmed down it perceived that the human in front of it was perfectly intact with out a dent or scratch on him, even a military hummer would take a beating if it came across a bear of the current quality.

Slowly the bear began to grasp the situation that it was in, with no way to kill or destroy the human in front of it; the only result would be its own death so it made the only logical decision it could think of.

It ran.

The bear looked at Euclid; then ran as fast and deep into the forest it could; hopefully before Euclid could catch it.

"Well there it goes, it's instincts are pretty good, I was about to use some of my nanites to tear it apart from the inside out if it came back again, but whatever; it's gone now and I can begin my journey again now"

Euclid said out loud before grabbing the bike and continuing to go down the path, he sometimes saw a deer or other animal, but no animal like the bear as this seemed to be its territory.

Finally coming up on a road which seemed to be split across the entire road with dirt and rocks all over; with no cars in sight, looking at a sign which pointed towards him saying 'Dead end' another saying 'city 10 miles' to the right and the last saying something which about an inn being 15 miles away, as the inn was further away and he wasn't aware of its current circumstances and he didn't have any business there he decided to go Seattle, which began the almost hour long bike ride before he saw any civilization.

Euclid saw some cars in the road but we're all empty, so when he finally able to see the city; it immediately attracted his attention so he sped up until he finally reached the city and slowly pedaled in on the bike.

"This place is like it was abandoned city, did every person just get up and disappear or are they hidden somewhere?"

Euclid just continued to walk down the the ghost citys main road, not spotting anything that would clarify where people would be, some places such as grocery stores, jewelry stores, pawn shops and other stores seemed to have been ransacked along with cars and buildings.

Slowling down he noticed around a hospital; a blockade of busses with the windows blocked off, deciding to check there first before doing anything else, he hoped off the bike and sta walked around the busses looking for in entry point, before he just decided to to knock.

*Clang!! Clang!! Clang!!*

After a few seconds a voice called out.

"Who is it and what do you want and are you infected!?!"

"I'm looking for information on the tower, my name is Euclid Prometheus and I don't know what I could be infected with" responded Euclid; quite confused on what disease was infecting the people of this city but figured it had something to do with Mana.

"We don't have the room for you, and you have nothing to trade, so go away!!" Replayed the person on the other sounding annoyed and questioning why someone would come here with nothing to offer and not even knowing what he could possibly be infected with.

"I'm just looking for the location to the tower then I'll leave"

Euclid repeated again trying to get some information on where to go now, based on the way the guy on the other side responded, the people weren't very welcoming to others; though he didn't care to much how the people saw him; he didn't really want to waste to much time trying to get along with others.

"Near the center of the city; you will find a park with a giant tower, that's what you're looking for, now good bye, don't come back, and good luck seeming as nobody ever comes back from there"

After a minute where the guy was presumably conversing with somebody else; finally responded before shooing him away before going silent once again.

"Alright thanks"

Replied Euclid before hoping on to the bike and riding off, although he was sorta interested in humanity and talking to them face to face, he wasn't going to waste time if he didn't need to if he could just enter the tower and meet other sentient races, making the tower even more appealing to journey to, though the man's last comment was a bit concerning as it would suck to lose his life so early after starting it he had determined the chance of death to be low considering there were easier ways to either destroy a race or absorb it so Euclid decided to trust his math and just go for it.

Riding on the main road for a couple of minutes before turning onto a road where he could see the park from his location, he also noticed the giant black and purple tower that seemed contain the stars inside with golden symbols on it.

'So that's the tower huh, it looks smaller than I thought it would be.'

Thought Euclid, while continuing to pedal towards the tower, before getting off a couple dozen feet away dropping the bike as he would no longer need it

"Those symbols don't have very much relation to any current or ancient language I'm aware of? I wonder if thats the mai--"

*Bang!!*

Before Euclid could realize; he was once again tackled to the ground, but unlike the brown bear this creature seemed smaller, weaker and more feral as the creature seemed to want to tear him apart like paper.

As Euclid opened up his eyes; he noticed it seemed to be a human, but it was apparent that it had gone crazy and would do anything to kill him.

Deciding to first immobilize the human first, he lift his hand to the creatures side, touched it then layed his hand back down without the feral human seeming to care or notice as it seemed to have no intention of stopping before he was dead.

But without the feral human having an option it froze in place, jurked, then fell backwards laying on the ground, Euclid who was on the ground was closing his eyes for a few seconds before he opened them and got up.

Looking at the human before him he saw the veins that seemed to want to pop and the eyes that only wanted destruction.

"I wonder if this is what the other humans mentioned by saying 'infected'? So is it a mutated version of rabies or was Mana what turned people into this? But based on the nanites I injected into him there seemed to be no sign of rabies or anything related to a disease in the spine, and brain so what's effecting him, although I know it must be related to Mana I can't understand Mana as I am right now, so I should probably just cut the brain stem seeing as it would be the most humane and quickest thing."

When Euclid had originally taped the feral human he had transmitted thousands of nanites to hyjack its body through control of the spinal cord, and to learn what was going on.

Deciding to cut the brain stem would lead to the humans death in a few minutes later, Euclid also collected his nanites back after the brain stem was cut and decided to focus back on the tower and decided to memorize and document all the information for later, before finally going up and touching the tower.

[Welcome traveler, to the Tower of Eternity!!]

[As you have been identified as a member of humanity, error...? error...? error...? you have been identified as having a human appearance, but have been recognized as being an automaton or spiritual race error...?if you wish to enter the Tower you can be teleported to one of four possible locations:

1. Humanitys main check point - main city: This location is where the humans main city in the tower live and reside, on floor zero.

2. Spirits main check point - main city: This location is where most of the towers spirits live and reside, on floor zero.

3. The Towers main city-the city of beginning: This location is on floor zero and is where all sentient races meet, it's the very center of the world, and the most populated, as well as being we're all trade is gathered. It has the most wealth, knowledge, population, and events.

4. Random: You will be teleported to a random location on floor zero.

It has been identified that there are no major locations, check points, or citys on floor zero for automations.

If you are ready to enter the Tower of Eternity select your choice of location and answer: 'I'm ready to enter the Tower of Eternity' ]

As Euclid read the message that seemed to appear in his mind; he knew his answer and choice.

"I would like to select option three: The Towers main city-the city of beginning and I'm ready to enter the tower of eternity"

And as he spoke, the symbols on the tower seemed to glow more before the space around Euclid seemed to shift and without anybody realizing he was there; he was gone, the worlds first artificial general intelligence that was sentient like any other person; that nobody else realized existed; disappeared from the world.