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!

trained as hard

entire life depended on

to get into the MNFA,

one day, just after Alex's 20th birthday, he got

was the greatest

dream was about to become

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

his second match, but it was a close

tragedy struck at Alex's third

had been going fine. There was some back and forth, and

the accident

fighting from a distance since no one managed to find a good opening to tackle the other one to the ground. Alex saw an opening in his opponent's defense and performed

CRACK!

the kick struck, and he managed to block

elbow

and the medics jumped

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

would allow him to walk somewhat normally with

Alex's career was over.

the highest high of his life, Alex fell

had earned quite a sum of money from his three fights, but he basically wasted all of it in a drunken

His life was over.

There was nothing anymore.

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

Alex planned to save up some

old, and he was working in a grocery

he fell into the lowest low, Alex was still young, and he knew that he could

and everything would

already dark out, but the streets were well lit. After all, Alex lived and worked in a

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

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

old newspapers, old

a common

home was barely a kilometer away, a distance

he wanted to keep his living costs as low as possible. Additionally, Alex somewhat enjoyed the walk

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

cigarette bin right beside

on!' he thought. 'The bin is

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

the sound of a whining dog,

the usual sound of a whining

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

in this city, but

searched around for the dog and found it in a dark

dog could barely be seen at the edge of the

Blood.

Bone.

Alex's face as he saw the dog. Both of its hindlegs were severely broken. He could see blood coming out of its legs, and he could even

it was in so

not. He didn't have a pet, but he also didn't hate animals. It was nice to look at and interact with

of that, pets

the broken legs, he got reminded of his own injury. A slight pain came

end, Alex

vet, but I won't pay much for your

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

"Don't move!"

as the familiar feeling of adrenaline rushing through

knife at his

hold of him, but he calmed down somewhat when he felt a hand

'A robbery,' Alex thought.

in panic for two seconds, but his old

Yet, Alex didn't attack.

the opponent first. Otherwise, mistakes were bound

Alex slightly glanced at the robber. He wore a black hoody and black sweatpants. It was hard to make out his facial features

glanced at the arm

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

appearance and condition of the

lure me into this alleyway. A

slight smirk appeared

chose the wrong

BANG!

and hit the lowered head of the robber. At the same time, Alex violently shoved

was never a

a former fighter, he could