Bamboo Village, North of R&Q Resort

After getting her pay, Isabella retired to the stables, which was where she slept.

It wasn’t a place for a human to live, but it was better than the wilds. Isabella had a rough childhood and was always stricken with poverty, so, for her, the stables were a very good place.

As she laid on the hay, the girl rubbed her stomach. Sid would deliver her dinner later, after the night had fully set. It was only a bowl of soup and some bread and water, which wasn’t nearly enough to fill her stomach.

“57 Coppers…”

She counted the coins before putting them to the side and lying down. After a short while, in which she bore through her starving stomach and aching joints, she opened her Status Window.

*TITLE(S) : Immortal

NAME : Isabella

RACE : Human

Lv: 15 (28%)

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Strength : 21

Magic Power: 50

Movement Speed: 39

Magic Power Regeneration: 5

Vitality: 19

Magic Control: 3

Mana: 99

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Skills: Immortality(LvEx) - Orb of the Outer God(????) - Language Comprehension(LvEx) - Pain Resistance(Lv7) - Stamina Recovery(Passive Lv4) - Survival Instinct(Passive)

Isabella sighed and got rid of the floating semi-translucent blue window. The man who had brought her did say that she would gain powers, but these weren’t enough.

[Immortality] literally let her regenerate from any fatal wound, but she still experienced the excruciating pain. As for the other skills, they were self-explanatory.

The only unexplained skill was [Orb of the Outer God], which was the orb she had swallowed as per the agreement. It neither made her stronger nor changed anything.

Isabella couldn’t use Magic or showcase superhuman strength.

“I’ll get more money and go to another place.” She muttered to herself with a soft and exhausted voice.

She kept remembering that silver-haired woman and talkative man. They were both extremely strong and mysterious, each equipped with powerful magic and skills.

“I have to become strong.”

Isabella was no saint. She had been forced to kill people back on Earth. She also committed theft and other illegal activities, all for the sake of surviving another day.

She expected things to change upon arriving to this foreign world, but the change wasn’t for the better. She had been captured by monsters and barely escaped.

Moreover, the inhabitants of this world were inherently strong. She couldn’t steal from rich people as they were protected by knights and other fearsome individuals.

Even sneaking into their homes wasn’t that easy as there would be barriers and such. Then again, Isabella didn’t have the chance to attempt that as she had been traveling from one place to the other.

As time crept by and the temperature started falling, the girl stood up and peeked at the house a distance away from the stables.

It was past her dinner time yet Sid didn’t come. She could see lights coming from inside the house, which meant that they were still awake.

It could be that Sid was still fighting with his wife, so he forgot about her, or so she thought.

Whatever the reason, Isabella decided to go there and ask for food.

She crossed the farm field and climbed the couple of wooden stairs leading to the entrance of the door, however, as she raised her hand to knock, she noticed that the door was open.

She hesitantly pushed it only to see Sid’s wife lying on the floor with her throat slit open.

By the next second, Isabella’s vision flashed red. A warning from [Survival Instinct].

Before she could react, a black shadow appeared behind her. It was a swift motion, stroking her exposed neck and cutting it open. Fresh blood gushed on the ground as Isabella fell head-first on the ground, gurgling and trying to move.

Her killer, a tall figure dressed in jet-black clothes with clothes wrapped around his head, hiding everything but the cold pair of eyes.

Isabella, as she was bleeding to death, moved her head ever-so-slightly and saw the cold bodies of Sid’s two children.

Two assassins, dressed exactly the same and holding dark green double-edged daggers, appeared from upstairs. One of them gestured toward Isabella and asked,

“Who’s she?”

“I don’t know.”

“Take another look outside and see if there are any more witnesses. There’s nothing here so we’ll start cleaning up.”

The assassin nodded and dashed outside. Isabella’s blood-covered body was dragged next to other corpses.

Sid, his wife, and his children were all dead. Killed by a single strike to their throats. However, Sid’s body had multiple injuries, which were clear signs of torture.

One of the assassins extended his hand, letting out a small wave of fires that quickly spread to the entire room.

“We can’t go back empty-handed.” Said one of the assassins, sounding anxious.

“We found the target, tortured him, and still failed in our task. We failed. Accept the consequences and don’t think about running away.” Said the second assassin, who sounded older and particularly stern.

As the flames were starting to spread to all corners of the house, the assassins didn’t linger there for long.

Unbeknowst to them, however, Isabella’s wound was rapidly healing. Less than a minute after their departure, her body twitched as she blinked multiple times and sluggishly moved.

She started coughing as her wound was closing, though her body was slow and exhausted.

Isabella gritted her teeth and mustered all of her strength, standing up and covering her mouth and nose.

The flames were creeping closer and closer and there was nothing but black smoke around her. The temperature was alarmingly high and the fact that the assassins could still be outside made her panic and hesitate.

She could either let herself be burned to death and then heal back, or risk going outside and possibly getting killed by the assassins again. Then again, they must notice that she was immortal and bring her with them.

“A-ah!”

Some of the fire burned her skin, causing her to shout and finally come to a decision. The pain was simply too unbearable, even for a strong-willed person like her.

She rushed toward the exit as the house was crumbling and the fire rising higher and higher, shining brightly amidst the darkness of the night.

Isabella raised her arms to the front and rushed outside, tumbling down the stairs and rolling on the ground. She breathed heavily, parts of her body burnt and bleeding, and her clothes almost completely shredded and turned into ash.

She coughed again and pushed her hands against the ground, fighting through the agony and trying to ascertain that the assassins weren’t there.

Just then, a wave of frosty air descended from above, quelling down the flames and leaving only the ashen and blackened rubble.

‘They’re still here!’

Isabella, with unsteady yet fast steps, ran toward the cornfield to get out of sight.

“Someone’s here.”

She heard the older assassin’s cold voice, followed by two fast shadows that circled from the back of the burnt house and toward Isabella.

She managed to enter the cornfield, but not before seeing them shot at her with superhuman speed.

‘No… no!’

Isabella despaired as she sprinted as fast as she could, but she ended up bumping her leg into a stone and falling down.

Thereafter, one of the assassins reached her and attacked without any hesitation. His dagger pierced through the girl’s chest, stabbing her heart.

“It’s the same girl.” He exclaimed, confused and surprised.

“Is it?”

The second assassin also arrived and stared at Isabella.

She flailed her hands and tried to attack him, but he pulled his dagger and kicked her body.

“I’m sure I killed her, how is that poss-”

Before he could finish, he saw the wound on her chest heal within seconds.

Isabella let out a gasp and tried to stand up, but the assassin appeared in front of her and bound her arms behind her back.

“She’s a witch or something.”

“Ehn…”

Isabella struggled but to no avail, the assassin was far too strong.

“We should show her to the boss.”

He used a thin, almost invisible threat to bind Isabella’s hands behind her back and then proceeded to drag her out of the cornfield. The second assassin remained close, eyeing her with a wary look.

“Help…somebody… help…”

Isabella opened her mouth and though she tried to cry for help, her voice was soft and barely audible.

“Please… help…”

When she cried for the second time, she felt a strange yet familiar sensation. It was as if her consciousness was plucked from her body.

A man’s voice rang in her ears, ‘So you can speak, girl.’

Arthur, now controlling Isabella’s body, looked at the assassins dragging him and then at the one a few paces away.

‘They are not your friends, I assume?’

Isabella heard a chuckle as Arthur broke free of the restraints and stretched his hand, grabbing the assassin’s head.

[Mind Blast]

Surprisingly, the skill wasn’t enough to kill the assassin. Nevertheless, the parasite followed a burst of flames that burned the cloth around the assassin’s head.

As he screamed and tried to jump back, the ground underneath his feet turned into ice and a fist-sized glowing yellow pyramid pierced through his chest and came from the other side.

Arthur was going to finish off the second assassin, but another one came from the flank and slashed with two daggers at once.

Even though he attacked from a distance, two sharp black-colored arcs struck Isabella’s body and blew her in the air.

The arc hit her neck, almost beheading her, and the second one severed her left arm.

‘This is nothing. I’m quite tenacious. Besides, I have your regeneration.’

The assassin, who rushed into the cornfield, didn’t know about Isabella’s powers. When he saw her stand up as if nothing happened, he looked at comrade.

“S-she’s a witch!”

“A witch can’t do that!”

A sinister laugh escaped Isabella’s mouth as her neck healed and her arm was growing back again.

The two assassins didn’t attack, they seemed to be on a silent agreement to flee.

“Not so fast.”

Isabella’s voice rang again as a swirling mist burst from her raised hand. It rose in the air and covered the entire field within a couple of breaths.