"What the fuck?" A young man asked as he opened his eyes and woke up to a literal light blue videogame style screen appearing in front of his face. This man is Dean Domino, an average twenty-five-year-old who is now questioning his sanity.
[Greetings Dean Domino. You have awoken your latent Arcana, which has been bestowed upon you by Earthrealm's Jinsei. You can find out more about that later. For now, you are being shown a tutorial about your Arcana and how it will get stronger in time, depending on how long you survive.
First let's discuss your core aspects that are broken down into levels, titles, HP, MP, Attributes and so on.
Now your overall health is given a numerical number represented in a crimson bar similar to your MP, otherwise known as your Mana.
You get stronger by training your core attributes of Strength, Constitution, Vitality, Dexterity, Intellegince, Wisdom, Charisma and even Luck.
Each level you gain 5 Attribute points and 1 Perk point which is used to purchase perks that modify your body and abilities. The perks you have access to change depending on various factors that can influence your life and soul.
Titles are things that can carry power with you, but more often the titles are simply badges that you can earn for yourself as you gain Reputation with various people and factions.
You've also got access to a Codex of information that stores any and all information you come across in case you need a reminder. You've also got access to a personal Inventory space that expands based on your Strength stat or Perks that you can acquire.
Now onto skills. You can verbally or mentally activate skills by speaking them aloud or focusing intensely on the skill you wish to use.
You can also access the 'Gamer Store' where you can buy and sell items for currency. You've also got access to a Gacha system where you can earn loot orbs and use them to roll for items of various types and ranks.
That's all for now, Dean Domino. Remember your Arcana will always be with you no matter what. For I am another part of your soul.]
"What?" Dean asked in total confusion at what he saw along with the ending message he saw at the end of the tutorial.
[Main Quest Alert!
Name: Help prevent Earthrealms Annihilation!
Objective 1: Train yourself in any form of physical combat!
Objective 2: Raise your stats to a sufficient amount!
Objective 3: Train your mind and mental stats to a sufficient amount!
Other Objectives are hidden!
Reward: Earthrealm's continued survival, increased REP with several Factions, decreased REP with several factions, other rewards are yet to be determined!
Failure: Destruction of Earthrealm and your very soul itself!
This quest has been automatically accepted as a Main Quest.]
"This just raises even more questions." Dean practically shouted in annoyance as he now felt a new sense of danger if these messages are to be believed, instead of Dean going with the theory of him going insane. Yet a part of him told him that this was true, especially when he glanced down at the back of his right hand and saw the draconic birthmark glowing a blue light on his flesh, which was apparently projecting the screens to his eye level.
When the messages vanished was when the light on his hand stopped glowing as Dean let out a groan before he got himself out of bed and made his way to the nearby bathroom of his family home.
Dean looked at his reflection to see that he thankfully didn't look any different or anything. Dean has fair skin with curly black hair on his head with blue eyes and an average frame.
Dean quickly cleaned himself up before he went back to his room and put on a basic hoodie and jeans with sneakers as he moved through his family's mansion in Charlotte NC. The mansion is large and comes from old money, so Dean didn't have to worry about finding a job for a few more years.
He wasn't some evil trust fund baby who was spoiled rotten by money. His parents were hard workers and made sure Dean understood humility and respect for people of all walks of life. Sadly, Dean was left alone now. His parents died mysteriously a year ago when they went on vacation to Siberia for some downtime.
Their bodies were decomposed at a bizarre speed and were practically mummified. The loss hurt Dean greatly and basically made him more of a shut-in than he already was. He only went out for the essentials and nothing else, but Dean started wondering if the universe was telling him to do something now.
"Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if I tried getting some exercise." Dean said to himself as he sat in the main room of the mansion at his work desk with a desktop computer placed on it, and he started looking over various self-defense classes near him.
"There are a lot of options for martial arts near me apparently. So, I guess I'll sign up for this class." Dean said to himself before he looked into a nearby martial arts space teaching standard self-defense in a mixture of styles.
"If anything, this is just an excuse to start exercising and improving my overall health." Dean said to himself before he headed outside and got into his 90's Cadillac before heading off to the self-defense class.
5/11/2024
Charlotte, NC
It has been two months since Dean started his training in martial arts along with training his mind as he slowly came to the realization that his 'Arcana' or whatever was truly real and a part of him.
Dean even dedicated some of his mental training time into studying the supernatural aspects of life along with mythology and magic. So, despite all logical reasons, Dean managed to actually create a magical spell through his studies that was called Lesser Ward which projected a magical shield spell around his body for safety.
He also learned some slight-of-hand tricks and gotten in decent shape thanks to his powers and his usage of his attribute points and perk points since he managed to level up during his training.
Right now, Dean was actually having an outing with his fellow martial arts students as they decided to celebrate the recent belt tests graduation as everyone went up a belt level.
"I'm not sure that this is my kind of place." Dean said as the group was seated at a nightclub and he was the only one still working on his first drink of beer.
"Come on Domino. You've got to live a little. You're the star of the class and you need to learn how to enjoy it." Jordan said with a smile before a few girls walked up to them and asked the group to dance with them. Dean felt like a fish out of water as he danced with a girl who he knew was completely out of his league.
She was a beauty and Dean felt drawn to her obviously, but something about her also felt off to Dean as he glanced at the information above her head.
Rae, Level: ?
?
Dean never saw his power read a person as an unknown variable and it unnerved him.
"You're not like your friends, are you?" Rae asked as she stopped dancing and got a bit closer to Dean with a strange smile on her face.
"What do you mean?"
"You aren't having fun like them. But I suppose it doesn't matter. I'm not patient enough for all this cloak and dagger planning. So, I'm just going to take my meal by force." Rae said before Dean's eyes widened as he ducked down and barely avoided Rae's claws swiping at his face.
Dean had gotten his forehead scratched as he saw that her nails had sharpened, and Rae now had wings emerging from her back as her teeth had sharpened like an actual vampire before he leaped back and away from the dance for as the club quickly became a sea of blood and screams from the other club attenders as more people like Rae started tearing the people apart.
Scadova, Level: 35
Rae/Vampire Fledgling
[Main Quest Alert!
Name: Survive your first Supernatural encounter!
Objective: Escape death from the hands of your assassins by any means!
Optional Objective: Defeat the vampires!
Rewards: 3,000 EXP, 1x Loot Orb
Failure: Death!
This quest has been automatically accepted!]
Dean heard the screams of his fellow marital artists and knew that he couldn't help them and defeat the vampire assassins at the same time, so in response he ran as fast as he could out of the club and into the night streets of Charlotte.
Dean didn't bother looking back since he heard the laughter of his pursuers behind him until he ran into a dead-end alley and turned around to see 'Rae' flanked by two other Vampires.
"Your bats are going to have to work for your meal." Dean said to the Vampires as he took a defensive stance and was quickly making peace with himself as he knew he was going to die tonight.
"It is a rare sight to see an Earthrealmer accept their fate so easily. Killing chosen like you will make conquering your realm all to easy." Scadova said with a smile before she let out a screech as she flapped her wings to lunge at Dean before she was suddenly planted firmly on the ground as a man in white and blue robes had appeared in a bolt of lightning and not only stopped on Scadova with both his feet on her back, but Dean also heard a solid crunch telling him that her ribs and spine had been broken.
Raiden, Level: X
God of Lightning/One of Earthrealm's Guardian Deities
"Begone vampires! You shall go hungry this night!" Raiden said loudly as he levitated off Scadova and aimed his right hand at her and hit her with a bolt of lighting that came from his hands and made her scream in pain before she was tossed towards her lackies by Raiden who guided the lightning bolt itself.
"Damn you Raiden. Your warriors will fall, and this realm will be ours." Scadova cursed weakly as Raiden scoffed.
"Your master is fond of his empty promises. Now leave this realm before I lose my patience." Raiden said before he raised his right hand and called another bolt of lighting down to his hand and the lightning had summoned a metallic staff with a dragon head at the top of it.
The vampires carried Scadova off into the night sky and both Dean and Raiden waited for them to leave their sight before Raiden turned to Dean with a softer expression than he had shown to the would-be assassins.
"Thanks for the save and everything, but who exactly are you and how did you manipulate lightning?"
"I am Raiden. One of Earthrealm's guardians, and I have come to speak with you Dean Domino." Raiden said, making Dean's eyes widen in mild surprise.
"Do you have an Arcana like me? Is that how you know me?" Dean asked, making Raiden chuckle lightly.
"I do not possess an Arcana Dean. I am one of the God's of Earthrealm and I know all who call this realm home. Sadly, I also know of Earthrealm's enemies who have been plotting to kill off all of Earthrealm's champions before the tournament can begin." Raiden explained while Dean was completely lost. "Much can be explained later Dean, but for your safety and the safety of those you hold dear. You must come with me to the Wu Shi Academy where you will be safe and learn what you must in order to survive the coming dangers."
[Main Quest Complete!
Name: Survive your first Supernatural encounter!
Rewards: 3,000 EXP, 1 Loot Orb]
You have leveled up! Level: 9-10-11! You have earned 10 Attribute Points and 2 Perk Points!
[Karmic Main Quest Alert!
Name: Join the light or remain alone!
Karmic Choice 1: Join the warriors of light with Raiden!
Karmic Choice 2: Tell Raiden that you wish to remain out of the fighting and risk death again on your own!
Karmic Choice 3: Tell Raiden you wish to let the world burn and join the dark forces of evil!
Rewards will be based on what choice you select!
Failure: Possible death!]
[Tutorial: Karmic choices will change the way you are perceived as well as change your possible allies and factions. So, choose wisely.]
"Raiden…I don't have much left in this world. I have no family and my friends were all killed because I ran away instead of trying to help them. I'm a nobody, so why would anyone want my help to stop whatever is supposed to be coming?" Dean asked honestly before Raiden walked closer to him and rested his hand on Dean's shoulder.
"The order of light only cares about what is in your heart Dean. They won't care about your mistakes or the choices you've made. They will treat you as they treat themselves, with respect and honor." Raiden said and Dean honestly felt better from those words.
"I'll join you Raiden. I have a feeling that if I join this order of light, I might be able to finally find a purpose in my life instead of just living with this empty feeling of existence that I've had for years. But first I need to go back to my home and gather my things." Dean said to the god of lightning, who smiled and nodded his head.
"Of course." Raiden said before both of them vanished in a burst of lightning that Raiden called down from the heavens.
1
Sonya Blade
The entire squad of special forces has been on the black dragon's trail for some time now. Sonya and commander Jax have both been tasked with taking down Kano by any means necessary, including taking his life if capture proved to be impossible.
However, what nobody saw coming was the black dragon getting the jump on them in the rainforest and practically wiping out the entire group, leaving Sonya alone in the forest while Jax had been taken by Kano.
This was a problem, but the bigger problem was that despite the amount of ammunition for her two-round burst rifle, she was surrounded by literal monsters.
They looked like tigers, except they had tusks coming from both sides of their jaws, their fur was a dark red and amber color, and their tails were spiked with bone.
There were four left when Sonya had to drop her rifle and turn around as one of the monsters jumped her, but when she fired her wrist gauntlets and fired pink energy rings into the belly of the beast. It landed hard on the ground with a new hole in its stomach.
Sonya scrambled to her feet and with her trained reflexes, she readied her garrote wire that was a condensed form of energy formed via her gauntlets connecting to each other and quickly stopped one of the other monsters assaults as it went to take a bite out of her and instead she used her wire to hold off the bite as it tried to bite past her wire, and in response, Sonya lowered her wire and crossed her arms under the monsters lower jaw and cut clean through it, making it cry out and back away as it was now missing its lower jaw.
Sonya quickly grabbed one of the rifles that one of her squad mates had dropped upon death and fired the last of the ammunition into the remaining monsters and sure enough, Sonya was left standing with blood staining her green fatigues and a scowl of anger on her face.
"Fuck!" Sonya cursed loudly as she kicked one of the monster corpses repeatedly while she cursed over and over again until she finally stopped with exhaustion setting in while her adrenaline was wearing off.
"Kano. When I find him, I'm going to kill him with my bare hands." Sonya said before looking on the ground and saw her brother in arms dog tags on the ground, before she quickly picked them up before putting them in one of her pockets along with the other dog tags of her fellow soldiers.
"Sonya Blade." A voice called out as Sonya got into a fighting stance and readied her gauntlets, which sadly took the moment to malfunction and short circuit.
The person who called out to her was floating down through the air via what looked like a miniature and controlled tornado of wind. The man has long grey hair with fair features and is dressed in strange ceremonial robes from Asian cultures. Sonya also took note of his small sword and crossbow that he had on his person.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Sonya asked with a scowl as she still had her gauntlets raised in an attempt to bluff her way out of a possible supernatural encounter. She didn't escape one to simply die in another after all.
"Be at ease. I mean you no harm. I saw what transpired and I mean to offer you aid in rescuing your friend Jax."
"And why should I believe you?" Sonya asked as the man landed on the ground.
"Believe it or not. The truth remains the same. I am Fujin the god of wind and air. I am here to ask your aid in defending the realm from destruction and in doing so, you will be able to rescue your friend who has been taken by the vile Black Dragon clan." Fujin said calmly as Sonya looked him over for a moment before she took a breath and slightly lowered her weaponized gauntlets.
"The Black Dragon has a lot of reach and has apparently gone into gene-splicing. On top of that this ambush is proof that someone in the special forces is feeding info to the Black Dragon. I'm not exactly in a good position to start trusting strangers."
"Understandable. However, what is coming to this world is worse than the Black Dragon, and sadly the clan has found itself aiding the forces that seek to destroy this world. So, I ask you to please aid your realms defense and join its warriors to find a way to stop what is coming." Fujin said back as Sonya's skepticim was kicked right out the door after her ordeal, and she found herself curious about what Fujin was referring to.
"And what exactly is coming?"
"Annihilation." Fujin responded grimly before Sonya's radio started sounding off. "Return to your superiors Sonya Blade and make your choice. If you refuse, I will not fault you, but it will make surviving this crisis more difficult for the citizens of Earthrealm." Fujin said before he took to the air by creating another controlled tornado of wind power underneath him as Sonya looked on in slight confusion and awe before she picked up her radio and called for an extraction team.
She had a lot to tell her superiors. Especially since she had been recording all the events with her hidden camera located on her fatigues that remained out of sight.
END!
A/N: Okay you guys won't believe how badly I wanted to make a pure Mortal Kombat story, let alone a gamer story. Now this universe of MK will be something of a fusion of various MK media and ideas inside of the series and hopefully everyone will like it. Also, I am doing the DLC characters because I want to. So, I hope everyone will enjoy that.
Please remember to fav, follow and review.
