Sword God in a World of Magic

One month earlier, on Earth.

"Thank you for your loyal support, and please visit us again!"

A superficially cheerful voice shouted this phrase from a medium-sized grocery store. The phrase was targeted at a middle-aged man that was just leaving the store. The middle-aged man slightly waved one of his hands to show that he had heard, but he couldn't be bothered to answer.

As soon as the man left, the grocery store cashier sighed and went back to the cash register. The cashier was a young man with blonde hair, and he looked like he had just hit his 20s. A slight muscular frame was still visible when one looked at him from the back, but when looking at him from the front, one could only see a rather sizable beer belly.

Clack, thump, clack, thump!

As the cashier walked back to the cash register, the sound of his cane could be heard on the floor of the grocery store.

"Hello, welcome to Stevie's!" the cashier greeted with superficial politeness as he handled the next customer.

"Hard day at work, huh?" the young customer asked the cashier.

"It's alright," the cashier answered with a slight chuckle. "Everyone has to make a living."

However, these words didn't reflect the cashier's real feelings.

'This fucking grocery store is killing me, I swear!' he thought as he "happily" bagged the groceries. 'Every day with the same shit. Alex, do this! Alex, do that! I swear, when I've saved up enough money for college, I'm going to burn this place to the ground!'

Of course, these were only thoughts created in a stressful situation. Alex knew that he wouldn't really do it.

This cashier was Alexander Hoffmann.

Alex for short.

Alex's life hadn't always been like this.

He had had a bright future ahead of him in the past.

Sadly, life didn't go his way.

On the urging of his father, Alex started doing sports when he was 12. After all, doing sports while growing was very beneficial to the development of a teenager.

Alex's father was a huge fan of the MNFA, the Multinational Fighting Association.

The MNFA let fighters from nearly all disciplines of martial arts fight each other with the least rules possible. So, in short, it was an organization that handled mixed martial arts fights, MMA for short.

Alex had also grown to like watching these fights, and when his father urged him to do some sports, Alex decided that he wanted to do MMA.

His parents' feelings were mixed on that subject.

On one hand, it was great that their child was finally doing some sports, but MMA could get pretty dangerous if something wasn't handled correctly.

However, since it was not professional MMA and since there were several coaches around in the local gym, they agreed.

Some time later, when Alex had had his first practice fight against another kid in the gym, he got his ass handed to him. Yet, this experience awakened a certain kind of stubbornness in him, an urge to win.

Sadly, he lost the next couple of practice matches too. Well, one couldn't really consider these matches a loss since they weren't real matches. They were simply some sparring between two students.

Yet, when Alex didn't clearly win a fight, he saw it as a loss.

Alex had already planned to change sports and join another one since it felt frustrating to see how everyone was better than himself. Yet, he wanted to win at least one time!

So, he continued training, and eventually, he won.

When Alex won, he felt something that he had never felt before.

It was a kind of indescribable high!

He felt like he was floating on clouds, and he felt like he was the greatest in the world!

The feeling of fighting, which had always annoyed him since his body hurt after it, transformed into the polar opposite.

This feeling of fighting others wasn't annoying.

It was simply a clash between men!

They were showcasing their power in a very primal fashion!

Alex wanted to feel this feeling again!

Alex stayed in the gym and even came more often. MMA had transformed from a chore into a hobby. The pain of sore muscles became a familiar pain that Alex even started to enjoy. It sounded cheesy, but the common phrase of every single sports coach in the world resonated with Alex.

"Pain is simply weakness leaving your body!"

As the years passed, Alex completely focused on MMA. Even his grades started to drop, which had already been average to begin with. Alex wasn't stupid, but he never paid attention in school and didn't learn anything.

Stuff like math and physics was still okay since he could often deduce the correct answers logically, which was why those grades didn't suffer much. However, subjects like history and foreign languages had it far worse since one had to actually learn for these things.

Alex had a ton of arguments with his parents over this, but Alex always said that his future was MMA. He would join the MNFA, and he would earn a ton of money!

passed high school but

MMA was his future!

as hard

life depended on

he didn't manage to get into

after Alex's 20th birthday, he got

greatest day of his

was about to become a

since his first opponent was pretty weak. His horrible win-loss record proved

match, but it

struck at Alex's

and forth, and he and

then, the accident

find a good opening to tackle the other one to the ground. Alex saw an opening in his opponent's defense

CRACK!

the kick struck, and

elbow hit

immediately broke, and the

news that his bones had damaged the nerves

allow him to walk somewhat normally with the support of a cane, but that was it. There was

Alex's career was over.

life, Alex fell to

but he basically

His life was over.

There was nothing anymore.

family held an intervention for him, and Alex finally realized that he had to stop being

to save up

and he was working in a grocery store precisely for this

still young, and he knew that

to college, and everything would turn

dark out, but the streets were well lit.

No matter how long he had lived here, he simply couldn't get used to the disgusting stench of

of the city was for low-income families, and the

butts, old newspapers,

was a common sight on

a kilometer away, a

he wanted to keep his living costs as low as possible. Additionally, Alex somewhat enjoyed the walk since he was used to doing a lot of

looked at a couple of cigarette butts

bin right

come on!' he thought. 'The bin

people that treated

some minutes, Alex heard the sound of a whining dog, and

the usual sound of

very loud, high-pitched, painful, and desperate.

of dogs was normal in this city,

dog and found it in a dark

dog could barely be seen at the edge of the streetlamps'

Blood.

Bone.

broken. He

it was in so much

a pet, but he also didn't hate animals. It was nice to look at and interact with them, but he didn't want to bear the responsibility of owning a pet of

of that, pets were

saw the broken legs, he got reminded of his own injury. A slight pain came from his ankle as the scene of being rushed into the hospital returned

end, Alex

bring you to a vet, but I won't pay much

into the alleyway and closed in on the dog. The dog didn't move and only continued crying in

"Don't move!"

the familiar feeling of adrenaline rushing

a knife at his

to move as panic took hold of him, but he calmed

'A robbery,' Alex thought.

been in panic for two seconds, but his old fighting

Yet, Alex didn't attack.

the opponent first. Otherwise, mistakes were bound to

and black

the arm that

his arm is shaking, and the knife is also not directly touching my neck.

the appearance and condition of the

injured the dog to lure me into this alleyway. A clever

slight smirk appeared on

chose the

BANG!

lowered head of the robber. At the same time, Alex violently shoved his shoulder upward, pushing the

became disoriented. It was never a good feeling to butt

much pain, but as a former fighter, he