Heart of a Hero: Somehow I've become the Vampire Queen?!

Chapter 11 - Training a Greater Arsenal

On a calm morning, bathed in the gentle sunlight filtering through the forest canopy, an adventurer scout ventured East from the walled city of Leviel. He had been tasked by the adventurer's guild with a simple request—to collect herbs from the woods that bordered the city. With a basket slung over his arm, he had set off as calm as ever, overly confident in his somewhat shaky evasion and getaway techniques.

As he ventured further into the woods, however, something caught his eye. Marks on the ground, footsteps, and even irregularities in the clearing. With his scout experience, the signs of combat became more apparent. At first, they were mere scuff marks on the forest floor, evidence of some brief skirmish. But as he continued, the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, and the marks grew deeper and more threatening.

His heart pounded within his chest as he pushed further into a clearing ahead. What he saw there was beyond his worst imaginings. Trees lay mangled and twisted, their once proud forms now grotesque in their destruction. The very ground seemed to bear the scars of some unearthly battle that couldn't have been caused by anything other than cursed magic. The scout trembled, yet his morbid curiosity drove him to continue forward.

And then, he came upon the horrifying centerpiece of the clearing—a mountain of undead corpses. The stench of death hung heavy in the air, suffocating and putrid. These were not mere casualties of a skirmish; they were the remains of something too powerful. Something that should not exist so near the walled city.

Fear clutched at the scout's heart, his limbs trembling uncontrollably as he surveyed the desecrated battlefield. The gravity of what he had stumbled upon was beyond comprehension. Every instinct in him screamed to flee, to escape this place of unfathomable horror.

From the corner of his eye, there lay a crevice of darkness that spilled nothing but ghastly energy. A Dungeon. The scout stood baffled. If the corpses in the clearing were monsters that had been birthed from the dungeon, then had it been a human that battled with such ferocity against them? Briefly staring at the undead's crumbling forms, he could not help but dismiss that thought.

Nevertheless, as he turned to retreat, the forest seemed to grow darker, as if the very shadows had thickened. From the shadowy abyss emerged a figure—a woman with shimmering silver hair that cascaded like a waterfall of moonlight. She radiated an otherworldly beauty, her presence both dignified and powerful.

The scout's breath caught in his throat as he beheld her. He knew what this was, what emerged from the crevice was a Vampire, a living embodiment of blood lust and power.

Her crimson eyes, like fiery orbs of inferno, met his gaze. For a moment that stretched into eternity, they locked eyes, and the scout's soul felt as if it were held in the grip of an inescapable force. The power that emanated from her was undeniable, an aura of might and control that dwarfed anything he had ever encountered.

With a surge of terror, he tore his gaze away and fled from that cursed clearing, back towards the safety of the walled city. His footsteps pounded against the forest floor, his heart raced like a wild animal's. The image of that woman and that dungeon were both seared into his mind.

As he finally broke free of the woods and caught his breath at the city gates, he couldn't shake the sense of dread that clung to him. He had ventured into a realm of death and power beyond his understanding, and the memory of those crimson eyes haunted his every waking thought.