Sword God in a World of Magic

Alex gathered the fruits.

There were 26 of them, which was insane!

The pig Alex had fed to the Hegemon before had only given him five, with one being taken away by the lizard.

But now, Alex received 26!

'Obviously, the Hegemon is rewarding me with fruits based on the power of the prey,' Alex thought as he gathered the fruits. 'What defines power? I guess it's mostly the amount of Mana inside of a being. The pig had only been a normal animal, but it had been quite massive. A normal wolf would probably only give me three fruits or something like that.'

As Alex took up the last fruit, he looked at it with narrowed eyes. 'I can train my body without problems when it comes to muscles, but power isn't only muscles.'

'I need powerful bones to resist my own power and to continue fighting after taking a heavy hit.'

'I need powerful organs for the same reason.'

'There's probably even something that can increase the effectiveness of my blood. More powerful muscles need more oxygen, and the blood is the thing that transports said oxygen.'

As Alex thought about that, he furrowed his brows. 'Wait a second. If my body requires more oxygen, I would be taking far deeper breaths. After all, my muscles are already more powerful than any human's muscles on earth. Yet, I'm breathing normally. In fact, now that I think about it, my breathing became even shallower.'

'It's almost like the more powerful my body gets, the less oxygen it needs, which makes no sense,' Alex thought. 'I wonder, can Mana work as some kind of replacement for oxygen? I think that's a possibility.'

Then, Alex sighed.

'Well, even without that, blood still plays an integral function for the body, and even if the blood itself has no chance of increasing its effectiveness, my blood vessels still need to become stronger. After all, I don't want to pop a vein whenever I bow forward.'

'In short, everything's important. My normal training gives me all I need for my muscles, but I require these fruits for everything else. I need to damage my body so that it can absorb Mana, and any damage to my bones or organs could prove fatal without a lot of Mana.'

Alex looked at the fire in the center of his clearing.

The fire crackled peacefully, and it was the sole source of light in a sea of darkness. The white snowflakes danced around it as the warm air pushed them away and melted them.

The sky was dark.

The forest was dark.

Only the fire wasn't dark.

What kind of impact did this image have on Alex?

Alienation.

From what?

From the fire.

gave comfort to humans, but Alex didn't need

comfort and safety

Alex wasn't prey anymore.

He was the hunter.

killing of the Stalker

fire. He wanted to let go

wouldn't

lot from his fight with

two opponents had been about equal in

had basically come out of the fight without even being injured or

even been

Why?

Willpower!

Conviction!

all-in and had put his life on the line. He had never

thought as he gazed at the fire. 'Back when I trained my ass off for my fights, I had to uphold a strict diet, had

not have any ways to make more money. I decided to go all-in

of weeks, hard for a couple of months, but the closer it got to the day of my

I wanted to just run away. I cried and wanted to end my life. All the pressure was overwhelming, and no

by my past actions. Yet, I didn't know what fate would

It was like I no longer had control

looked at

and escape this pressure. After all, I'm powerful enough to survive. I don't

'Yet, in order to achieve my dream, I need discipline. One day of skipping training will lead to another day a week later, which will lead to another day a week

the end, I will have

have

turned around and took hold of the

went over to the fire and hung the

the fire again and walked

can't give in to

his bag

right now since I will be

fruits and looked at it with

his mind was at the moment, he still felt deep terror when he

symbolized another harrowing, torturous,

blood vessels, and so on. I can't imagine everyone going through this hell. The path to power is

would these other methods be better than this one? Would they be

'I don't know.'

bit, but after gnashing his

body immediately felt like

noticed

burning is not as intense as before,' Alex thought with fiery eyes. 'I will still explode if I don't do anything about this Mana, but

powerful, and the fruits no longer have as big of an effect