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.

fire gave comfort to humans, but

comfort and safety but

Alex wasn't prey anymore.

He was the hunter.

killing of the Stalker had reaffirmed this

still wanted to rest by the fire. He wanted to let go of all

wouldn't

had learned a lot from his fight with the

had been about equal in

of the fight without even

Stalker hadn't even been able to

Why?

Willpower!

Conviction!

He had never thought about retreat, and he had only attacked. He would either win

situations before,' Alex 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 to uphold a strict training regime, had nearly

on my shoulders. If I lost my fight, I would not have any ways to make more money. I decided to go all-in in my

of months, but the closer it got to the day

my first fight, I wanted to just run away. I cried and wanted to end my life. All the pressure was overwhelming, and no matter what I did

been decided by my past actions. Yet, I didn't know what fate would be chosen for

like I no longer had control

at

me of that place. I could abandon everything and simply sit down. I could find solace and escape this pressure. After

of skipping training will lead to another day a week later, which will lead to another day a week later until it becomes normal. Then, I will eventually take another day off, and

the end, I will have mostly given

have invaded

took hold of

to the fire and hung

away from the

can't give in

at his bag and looked through

since I

grabbed one of the fruits

convicted and stalwart his mind was at the moment, he still felt deep terror when he looked

symbolized another harrowing,

train my organs, bones, skin, blood vessels, and so on. I can't imagine everyone going through

don't know these other methods. Also, would these other methods be better

'I don't know.'

a bit, but after gnashing his teeth, Alex finally swallowed

body immediately felt like it started burning

Alex noticed

is not as intense as before,' Alex thought with fiery eyes. 'I will still explode if I don't do

the fruits no longer have as big of an