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!

school but decided against going to

MMA was his future!

hard as he

life depended on his

manage to get into

day, just after Alex's 20th

the greatest day of

dream was about to become

first opponent was pretty weak. His horrible

his second match, but

tragedy struck at

been going fine. There was some back and forth,

the accident

to tackle the other one to the ground. Alex saw an opening in his opponent's defense and performed a roundhouse

CRACK!

the kick struck, and he managed to

elbow

broke, and the medics jumped into

bones had damaged the

it to the point that would allow him to walk somewhat normally with the support of a

Alex's career was over.

highest high of his life, Alex

a sum of money from his three fights, but he basically wasted all of it in a drunken haze of destruction over the

His life was over.

There was nothing anymore.

his family held an intervention for him, and Alex finally realized that he had to stop being such a pussy. One year

Alex planned to save

was working in a grocery

and he knew that he could still make something of his life. He only had to work his ass off for

to college, and

passed in the grocery store, and after helping close up the place, Alex left at around 10 pm. It was already dark out, but the streets were well lit. After all, Alex lived and worked in a less savory part of a big

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

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

butts, old

common sight on

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

living costs as low as possible. Additionally, Alex somewhat enjoyed

Alex stopped as he looked at a couple of cigarette butts on the

the cigarette bin

on!' he thought. 'The bin is

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

sound of a whining dog,

sound of a

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

this city, but that

dog and found it in a dark

be seen at the edge of the streetlamps'

Blood.

Bone.

of its hindlegs were severely broken. He could see blood

was in so much

if he should help it or not. He didn't have a pet, but he also didn't hate animals. It was

that,

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

the end, Alex

I'll bring you to a vet, but I won't

into the alleyway and closed in on the dog. The dog

"Don't move!"

as the familiar feeling of

a knife

didn't dare to move as panic took hold of him, but he calmed down somewhat when he felt a hand hurriedly searching through his

'A robbery,' Alex thought.

been in panic for two

Yet, Alex didn't attack.

opponent first.

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

arm that

force that his arm is shaking, and the knife is also not directly touching my neck. He's probably new

the appearance and

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

slight smirk appeared

you chose

BANG!

head shot backward and hit the lowered head of the robber. At the same time, Alex violently shoved his shoulder upward, pushing the knife away

was never a good feeling to butt heads

just as much pain, but as a former fighter,