Shadow Husband:I Have a Hidden SSS-Class System-Chapter 13: THE HUNTER’S FORGE - DAY 2

The alarm blared at 5:45 AM, and a pillow came flying across the room.

"Who decided six AM was a reasonable time to start training?" Fajar groaned from his bed, his voice muffled by his remaining pillow.

"Yanto decided," Budi’s voice came from the doorway. He was already dressed in full combat gear, looking annoyingly alert. "Fifteen minutes. Breakfast, then morning drills. Move."

Rama dragged himself upright, every muscle in his body protesting. Yesterday’s B-rank trial dungeon had been brutal, and even healing potions couldn’t completely erase the deep fatigue that came from fighting monsters fifteen levels above him.

He’d made his decision about the milestone skill last night after carefully editing his phone call with Sekar to remove anything about other Players, B-rank training dungeons, or the System.

[SKILL SELECTED: GUARDIAN’S RESOLVE - RANK A]

[EFFECT: Massively increased defense when protecting allies. Damage taken can be partially redirected to shield/armor instead of HP. Passive team damage reduction aura (5% within 10 meters).]

The System had rewarded his choice with +10 Vitality and +5 Strength. Not flashy. Not high damage. But perfect for learning how to actually protect a team instead of just surviving solo.

Fifteen minutes later, all seven Players stood in the pre-dawn darkness of the main training ground. Yanto waited for them with what looked like weighted training vests stacked beside him.

"Today’s focus: fundamentals," he announced without preamble. "You all have System skills. You all have impressive stats. But I watched you yesterday, and half of you rely too much on abilities and not enough on technique." His single eye swept across them like a searchlight. "Rama, step forward."

Rama approached warily, very aware of the other Players watching.

"You move like someone who learned to fight through trial and error. Lots of dying and respawning in dungeons, right?"

"More or less," Rama admitted.

"It shows. Your footwork is improving thanks to Budi, but you still telegraph your attacks. You overcommit to strikes. You don’t maintain proper spacing." Yanto tossed him one of the vests. "Put that on. Fifty kilograms."

The vest was incredibly heavy. Rama’s enhanced Strength meant he could wear it without collapsing, but moving would be significantly harder.

"Everyone gets one," Yanto continued, distributing vests to the others. "Different weights based on your stats. For the next four hours, you will drill basic combat forms. No skills. No magic. Pure technique."

Dewi caught her vest and grimaced. "I’m an assassin. I don’t do ’basic combat forms.’"

"Then you’ll learn today." Yanto’s tone left absolutely no room for argument. "Assassins who rely only on stealth die when stealth fails. You need fundamentals that work even when your skills are on cooldown or you’re out of mana."

He moved to the center of the training ground, his missing arm not diminishing his commanding presence in the slightest. "Form up. We start with stances."

Two and a half hours later, Rama’s legs felt like they were on fire.

Holding combat stances while wearing fifty kilograms of extra weight was torture. Every time someone’s form slipped even slightly, Yanto’s corrections came like whip cracks.

"Lower! Your center of gravity is too high, Fajar!"

"Arif, your weight distribution is off. Again!"

"Rama, stop leaning forward. You’re a tank, not a battering ram!"

But slowly—gradually—Rama could feel the difference. The stance that had felt awkward and unnatural at first was becoming second nature. His balance improved. His endurance increased. His body adapted.

[SKILL PROFICIENCY INCREASING]

[GUARDIAN’S RESOLVE: RANK A → A+]

[COMBAT SENSE: RANK E → D]

The System registered his improvement with its usual cold efficiency. Just facts. No commentary.

"Break!" Yanto called finally. "Fifteen minutes. Hydrate. Then we move to partner drills."

The group collapsed gratefully, reaching for water bottles with shaking hands.

"This is insane," Ayu panted, sprawled on the ground. "I thought this was supposed to be advanced training, not basic boot camp."

"This is advanced training," Budi said, barely winded despite being the oldest person there. "You can’t build a house on a weak foundation. Same principle applies to combat."

Sari stretched her legs with practiced ease, remarkably composed despite the brutal workout. "Yanto trained me three years ago when I first became a Player. This is actually his gentle approach. Trust the process."

Rama checked his phone during the break. No messages from Sekar yet—she’d still be asleep at this hour. He’d call her during lunch as promised.

"Alright, pair up!" Yanto’s voice cut through the chatter. "We’re drilling defensive responses. I want to see blocks, parries, and evasion. Rama, you’re with Dewi."

Dewi grinned wickedly as she approached. "Try to keep up, baby."

Fighting Dewi was a humbling experience.

She was level 38 to his 25. An experienced assassin with years of Player experience under her belt. Even with the weighted vest slowing her down, she was faster than Rama could consciously track.

Her attacks came from impossible angles—feints within feints, strikes that seemed to bend around his guard like water flowing around stone.

"You’re too reactive," she said, landing her wooden training knife against his ribs for the fifth time in as many minutes. "You wait to see the attack, then respond. By then it’s too late."

"How am I supposed to block something I can’t see?" Rama asked, frustration bleeding into his voice.

"You don’t see it. You feel it." She reset her stance, her movements precise and economical. "Your Combat Sense should be screaming before I strike. Listen to it."

They went again.

This time, Rama closed his eyes. Focused entirely on the passive skill that had been feeding him information since the tutorial dungeon. He shut out the sounds of the other pairs sparring around them, the morning sun warming his face, everything except that sixth sense whispering warnings.

He felt Dewi shift her weight. Felt the air pressure change as she moved. Felt the killing intent crystallize a split second before the blade came.

His sword moved on pure instinct, intercepting the strike he hadn’t consciously seen.

"There!" Dewi’s eyes lit up with approval. "That’s it. Do it again."

For the next hour, Rama fought with his eyes closed, relying purely on Combat Sense and muscle memory. It was disorienting at first. Frustrating. He took more hits than he blocked.

But gradually, something clicked.

[SKILL PROFICIENCY INCREASING]

[COMBAT SENSE: RANK D → D+]

By the time Yanto called for lunch, Rama was successfully blocking sixty percent of Dewi’s attacks while blind.

"Not bad," she admitted, actually sounding impressed. "You’re still a baby compared to the rest of us, but you’re learning fast."

During the lunch break, Rama excused himself from the noisy cafeteria table and found a quiet corner outside where he could hear properly. The other Players were still eating, their conversation a low hum through the open windows.

He called Sekar on video chat.

She answered on the first ring, her face filling the screen immediately. "Finally! I’ve been waiting all morning to hear from you!"

"Sorry. Training started at six AM and didn’t stop until now."

"Six AM? That’s absolutely brutal." Concern was written across her features. "How are you holding up? Are you eating enough? Sleeping okay?"

"Sore everywhere, exhausted, but learning a lot," Rama said, which was all completely true. "The instructor is intense but really good at what he does. He’s pushing everyone hard."

"The beds there aren’t too uncomfortable? You’re getting enough rest between sessions?"

"Everything’s fine. The facility is very professional. They’re taking good care of us."

They talked for twenty minutes while Rama carefully edited his day—removing all mentions of Players, System training, fighting B-rank monsters, or skill fusion experiments. He told her about the weighted vests, the stance drills, the partner exercises. All true. Just incomplete.

Sekar updated him on guild politics, the ongoing preparations for the Sumatra S-rank gate, and how empty and quiet the penthouse felt without him there.

"I miss you," she said softly, her usual commanding presence giving way to vulnerability. "Three more days feels like forever."

"I know. I miss you too."

"You’ll call me tonight before bed?"

"Every night. I promised, didn’t I?"

After hanging up, Rama returned to the cafeteria. Fajar slid a tray of food toward him without comment—apparently he’d grabbed extra for Rama while he was on the phone.

"Your wife?" Fajar asked.

"Yeah."

"S-Rank Guild Master, right? That’s got to be incredibly complicated."

"You have no idea," Rama said, attacking his food with sudden hunger.

Dewi leaned forward conspiratorially. "Does she know you’re a Player?"

"No. And she can’t ever know."

"Why not? My husband knows about my System. Makes life so much easier."

"Your husband isn’t an S-Rank with yandere tendencies who would lock me in a gilded cage ’for my safety’ if she found out I was getting exponentially stronger."

Arif whistled low. "Yandere S-Rank. That’s genuinely terrifying."

"It’s manageable. Barely." Rama stabbed at his rice. "What about the rest of you? Do your families know?"

The table went quiet for a moment.

"My family’s dead," Sari said flatly, her tone brooking no sympathy. "Gate break took them before I became a Player."

Budi shook his head. "No family. Never married. The System is all I have."

The twins exchanged glances. "Our parents know," Ayu said carefully. "They’re civilians. Worried constantly but supportive."

"I told my girlfriend," Fajar admitted. "She didn’t believe me at first until I showed her the System interface directly. Now she thinks it’s the coolest thing ever and wants to know everything about quests."

"Mine knows too," Dewi added. "He’s a C-Rank Hunter himself. Not a Player, but he understands the life well enough. We make it work."

Different circumstances. Different support systems. But all of them hiding something from someone.

"The Ascended don’t hide," Arif said quietly, his expression darkening. "They flaunt their power openly. Think the System makes them superior to everyone else."

"And that’s exactly why they’re dangerous," Budi growled. "They’ll expose all of us eventually. Draw attention from governments, guilds, organizations that would love to dissect us to understand how the System works."

Yanto appeared at their table before anyone could respond. "Afternoon session in ten minutes. Today you learn skill fusion."

"Skill fusion?" Rama asked.

"Combining System skills for enhanced effects. It’s advanced technique, but you’re all ready for it." Yanto’s expression was deadly serious. "The things you’ll eventually fight won’t be simple monsters. You need every advantage you can get."

Yanto led them to a specialized training room lined with mana-dampening panels that kept their experiments from damaging the rest of the facility.

"The System gives you individual skills," he began, standing at the center of the room. "But skills can be combined. Chained together. Merged temporarily for exponentially greater effect." He raised his remaining arm. "Watch closely."

He activated two skills simultaneously—one that Rama recognized as a Strength enhancement, another that appeared to be some kind of elemental infusion.

His fist ignited with brilliant blue flame, the mana so dense it was visible even to civilian eyes.

Then he punched a reinforced training dummy designed to withstand B-rank attacks.

The dummy exploded into fragments, the shockwave creating a crater that spread across the reinforced floor.

"That was two B-Rank skills combined into an A-Rank effect," Yanto explained calmly, as if he hadn’t just demonstrated devastating power with one arm. "Individually, neither skill would produce that level of destruction. Together, they multiply rather than add."

He looked at each of them in turn. "You all have multiple skills now. Today you experiment. Find combinations that synergize. Some skills work beautifully together. Others conflict and cancel each other out. Discovery is part of the process, and I can’t tell you what will work for your specific build."

For the next three hours, the training room became a laboratory of controlled chaos.

Rama started by trying to combine [Steel Body] with [Guardian’s Resolve]. The defensive bonuses stacked impressively, but the mana cost was prohibitive—he could only maintain both skills simultaneously for about thirty seconds before complete exhaustion set in.

But thirty seconds of near-invulnerability might be the difference between life and death in a critical moment.

Next he experimented with [Phantom Strike] and [Shadow Step]—teleporting mid-attack to create afterimages in multiple locations simultaneously. The first few attempts failed spectacularly, leaving him disoriented and dizzy. But on the fourth try, something clicked.

[SKILL FUSION DISCOVERED: PHANTOM STEP]

[EFFECT: TELEPORT WHILE ATTACKING, LEAVING AFTERIMAGES AT BOTH LOCATIONS]

[COST: 50 MP]

[COOLDOWN: 15 SECONDS]

The System registered the combination as a completely new technique, separate from the base skills.

Around the room, other Players were making similar discoveries.

Sari combined her phantom blade technique with a speed enhancement skill—her sword strikes became an almost invisible blur that left training dummies in ribbons.

The twins discovered they could merge their individual attacks into a single devastating strike that hit with twice the force of both attacks combined.

Dewi found a combination that allowed her to stack three separate assassination techniques into one absolutely lethal blow.

Fajar’s summons became more powerful when he channeled his elemental magic through them directly.

"Good progress," Yanto observed, walking among them and examining their results. "You’re learning the fundamental principle. But remember—fusion techniques drain mana exponentially faster than individual skills. Use them strategically for critical moments, not as your default attack pattern."

By evening, everyone was completely exhausted, mana-depleted, and covered in bruises from failed experiments.

But they were also measurably stronger than they’d been that morning.

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL 25 → LEVEL 26]

[STAT POINTS AVAILABLE: 5]

Rama allocated the points while walking to dinner with the others. Three to Vitality, two to Strength. His primary role as a tank demanded maximum survivability above everything else.

That evening, after a quiet dinner and some downtime in the common area, Rama retreated to the dormitory room he shared with Fajar and Budi. Fajar had already crashed early, snoring softly in his bed. Budi was by the window reviewing training notes by lamplight.

Rama grabbed his phone, found a private corner, and called Sekar on video chat.

Her face appeared on screen, and her expression immediately shifted to concern. "You look absolutely exhausted."

"Long day. Really good training though."

"Tell me everything that happened."

He described the physical drills in careful detail, omitting the skill fusion experiments entirely. Made it sound like standard advanced combat training—grueling and intensive but perfectly normal for a high-level program.

Sekar listened intently, asking pointed questions about specific techniques, his visible progress, whether the instructor thought he was pushing himself too hard.

"Yanto—the head instructor—said I’m improving faster than he expected," Rama offered, which was actually true. "Still have a lot to learn, but the fundamentals are getting stronger."

"I’m so proud of you." Her smile was genuine and warm. "When you come back home, I want to spar with you personally. See these improvements for myself firsthand."

The thought of fighting Sekar—even in a friendly controlled spar—was absolutely terrifying. She could probably defeat him with one hand literally tied behind her back.

"Maybe after I finish the full program and have time to practice more," Rama said diplomatically.

They talked until Sekar’s eyes started drooping visibly. The Sumatra raid preparations were clearly exhausting her as much as his training was exhausting him.

"Get some sleep," Rama urged gently. "You need rest too."

"I know. I just really miss falling asleep next to you."

"Two more days. Then I’m home and you can monopolize me completely."

"Two more days," she echoed softly. "I love you, Rama."

"Love you too."

After the call ended, Rama lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, listening to Fajar’s rhythmic snoring and the sound of Budi turning pages.

[Hidden Quest Progress: 10/30]

[Quest: Complete Hunter’s Forge Training - Day 2/4 Complete]

Two days of intensive training. Two days of learning what it meant to fight as part of a coordinated team rather than a solo grinding machine. Two days of discovering techniques and combinations he never would have found alone.

The System had given him raw power and the framework to grow.

But the Forge was teaching him how to actually use that power effectively.

Tomorrow would bring new challenges. New skills to master. New levels to gain.

But tonight, for the first time in weeks, Rama fell asleep without the crushing weight of deception pressing down on his chest.

Here, surrounded by other Players who understood exactly what he was going through, he could be himself completely.

For two more days, at least.

Then he’d return home and the lying would begin again.