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!

barely passed high school but decided against going to

MMA was his future!

as hard as he

entire life depended on

didn't manage to get into the MNFA,

day, just after Alex's 20th

greatest day

about to

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

second match, but

tragedy struck at Alex's

been going fine. There was some back and forth, and he and his opponent

then, the

to find a good opening to tackle the other one to the ground. Alex saw an opening

CRACK!

struck, and he managed to block it

elbow

ankle immediately broke, and the medics

Alex got the news that his bones had damaged the nerves and muscles

with the support of a cane, but that was it. There was nothing more

Alex's career was over.

of his life, Alex fell to the lowest

his three fights, but he basically wasted all of it in a

His life was over.

There was nothing anymore.

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

save up some

and he was working

young, and he knew that he could still make something of his life. He only had to work

go to college, and everything would turn for

the place, Alex left at around 10 pm. It was already dark out, but the streets

the grocery store, his nose wrinkled. No matter how long he had lived here, he simply couldn't get used to the disgusting stench

low-income families, and the state of the streets reflected that very

old newspapers,

was a common sight

ignore the stench and walked home. His home was barely a kilometer away, a distance where people argued if they should drive or

Additionally, Alex somewhat enjoyed the walk since he was used to doing a

at a couple of cigarette butts on

bin

on!' he thought. 'The bin

push the cigarette butts to the side of the closest building. He hated these people that treated the streets as their own toilet, but he didn't hate them enough to

some minutes, Alex heard the sound

usual sound of a whining

very loud, high-pitched, painful, and desperate. Obviously, the dog was in

dogs was normal in this city, but that sound definitely wasn't

the dog and found

could barely be seen at the edge of the streetlamps'

Blood.

Bone.

he saw the dog. Both of its hindlegs were severely broken. He could

was in so much

It was nice to look

of that,

he got reminded of his own injury. A slight pain came from his ankle as the scene of being rushed

end,

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

dog. The dog didn't move and

"Don't move!"

as the familiar feeling of adrenaline rushing through his veins

was a knife

as panic took hold of him, but he calmed down somewhat when he

'A robbery,' Alex thought.

been in panic for two

Yet, Alex didn't attack.

was essential to analyze the opponent first. Otherwise,

wore a black hoody and black sweatpants. It was hard to make out his facial features in the darkness while looking

arm that held the

force that his arm is shaking, and the knife is also not directly

noted the appearance

to lure me into this alleyway. A clever but cruel

slight smirk appeared

chose

BANG!

lowered head of the robber. At the same

robber became disoriented. It was never a good feeling to butt heads with another

a former fighter, he could still make