Rama’s eyes snapped open at 1:47 AM. No alarm. No sound. Just the internal clock he’d been developing since getting the System, honed by three nights of sneaking out while Sekar slept.
Beside him, she breathed deeply and evenly, one arm draped across his chest in that possessive way that had beco her sleeping habit. He lay still for thirty seconds, counting her breaths, confirming the rhythm of deep sleep.
Then he moved.
The extraction had beco an art form. Shift weight to the left. Slide right shoulder out. Replace himself with a pillow so her unconscious mind registered sothing to hold. Roll smoothly off the bed without disturbing the mattress springs.
Sekar stirred slightly, her hand tightening on the pillow, pulling it closer. She mumbled sothing unintelligible and settled back into sleep.
Rama waited a full minute in the darkness, barely breathing, before moving toward the bathroom. He’d learned to prepare everything in advance—dark clothing folded and hidden, ergency excuses rehearsed, phone location spoofing app already active.
He dressed silently, activated [Presence Concealnt], and checked his phone. One new ssage on the Player Network, sent an hour ago while he’d been pretending to sleep.
[SARI: F-Rank gate spotted. Residential area, Kebayoran. Sli-type dungeon. Perfect for solo practice. Coordinates attached. Burns out in 3 hours.]
F-Rank. The absolute bottom tier of gates. Most guilds wouldn’t bother—the profit margin was pathetic, barely worth the fuel costs to send a team.
But for Rama, it was perfect. Low risk. Real combat experience. And most importantly, nobody would be watching a gate this worthless.
He slipped out of the penthouse, using [Shadow Step] to teleport between cara blind spots he’d ticulously mapped over the past few days. Three minutes later, he erged onto Jakarta’s empty streets where a rental motorcycle waited at the corner.
The city at night was a different world. Quiet. Dark. Dangerous.
Exactly where he needed to be.
The gate pulsed weakly in an empty parking lot behind a residential apartnt complex in Kebayoran, barely three ters tall and shimring with dull yellow light. F-Rank gates were almost pathetic compared to the massive portals that high-rank dungeons created.
But this was Rama’s first completely solo hunt since getting the System. No party mbers. No backup. No safety net. No Budi watching from the sidelines.
Just him and whatever waited inside.
[F-RANK GATE DETECTED]
[DUNGEON: SLI NEST]
[ESTIMATED CLEAR TI: 15-20 MINUTES]
[RECOMNDED PARTY SIZE: 2-3 HUNTERS (F-RANK)]
[ENTERING SOLO - PROCEED? YES/NO]
Rama selected YES and stepped through the shimring portal.
The world inverted and reford into a damp cavern system. Bioluminescent moss provided eerie green lighting along rough stone walls. Water dripped from stalactites overhead with rhythmic plinking sounds. The air slled of mildew and sothing vaguely acidic that made his nose wrinkle.
[YOU HAVE ENTERED: SLI NEST]
[OBJECTIVE: CLEAR ALL MONSTERS]
[ENEMIES DETECTED: 47 SLIS]
[BOSS: SLI QUEEN - LEVEL 8]
Rama drew his sword and advanced carefully into the tunnel ahead. His [Combat Sense] passive made him hyper-aware of everything. Every drip of water. Every shadow. Every subtle shift in air pressure.
The first sli appeared around a corner—a blob of translucent blue gel about the size of a basketball, with a small glowing core visible inside like a luminescent pearl.
[BLUE SLI - LEVEL 3]
Pathetically weak. A normal person with a stick could probably kill it.
But Rama didn’t underestimate the creature. Budi’s voice echoed in his mind from yesterday’s brutal training: Every enemy is dangerous if you’re careless. Doesn’t matter if it’s a sli or a dragon. Respect your opponent or die to sothing stupid.
The sli launched itself at him with surprising speed. Rama sidestepped—proper footwork, balanced stance, just like Budi had beaten into him—and bisected the creature with a clean horizontal sword stroke.
The sli shuddered once and dissolved into gel particles and light that faded into nothing.
[BLUE SLI DEFEATED]
[EXP 12]
Twelve experience points. Almost nothing. But it was progress.
More slis appeared from deeper in the cavern. Blue, green, red variants in different sizes. They attacked in small groups of three or four, bouncing off walls, trying to surround him with basic swarm tactics.
Rama moved through them like water flowing around stones, applying everything he’d learned from five hours of Budi’s brutal instruction. No wasted movents. Efficient strikes that targeted cores directly. Proper positioning that prevented them from surrounding him.
Each sli died in one clean hit.
[SLIS DEFEATED: 15/47]
[EXP GAINED: 180]
The combat was almost ditative. Slash. Dodge. Strike. Move. Turn. Strike again. His body found a rhythm that bypassed conscious thought entirely, muscle mory and enhanced stats working together in harmony.
Ten minutes into the dungeon, Rama reached a larger chamber where the tunnel opened into a natural cavern. Twenty slis waited inside, along with sothing noticeably bigger than the rest.
[ELITE SLI - LEVEL 6]
[ENHANCED DURABILITY - ACID SPRAY ABILITY]
The Elite was the size of a beach ball, its core pulsing with angry red light instead of the passive blue of its weaker cousins. The mont Rama stepped into the chamber, it contracted like a water balloon being squeezed, and a stream of hissing acid sprayed directly at his face.
Rama activated [Shadow Step] without thinking, teleporting ten ters to the left in a flicker of darkness. The acid hit the wall where he’d been standing and sizzled ominously.
He reappeared behind the Elite and drove his sword straight through its core from behind. Critical hit.
The Elite Sli convulsed once, then exploded outward. Harmless gel splattered across the cavern floor.
[ELITE SLI DEFEATED]
[EXP 85]
The remaining twenty normal slis rushed him in a coordinated swarm. Rama activated [Phantom Strike].
His sword blurred into motion, multiplying into afterimages that struck from impossible angles simultaneously. Within seconds, all twenty slis were dissolving into particles of light.
[SLIS DEFEATED: 35/47]
Rama paused to check his status. HP at ninety-five percent from a single glancing hit. Mana at seventy percent from skill usage. No potions needed yet.
The power gap between his current level and F-Rank content was enormous. He could probably clear this dungeon blindfolded at this point.
The boss chamber was a massive cavern with a pool of acidic water at the center, bubbling and steaming ominously. Sothing massive rose slowly from the pool’s center.
[SLI QUEEN - LEVEL 8 - BOSS]
A massive blob of translucent pink gel, easily three ters tall and four wide. Multiple cores pulsed within its body like beating hearts—Rama counted at least five glowing points distributed throughout its mass.
[WARNING: SLI QUEEN CAN SPLIT INTO SMALLER SLIS]
[ATTACK PATTERN: ACID SPRAY, BODY SLAM, ABSORPTION]
The Queen launched itself at Rama with shocking speed for sothing so large. Rama dodged sideways, watching its movent pattern carefully. Budi’s voice again: Study your opponent. Find the rhythm.
The Queen had a very obvious tell—a slight compression and brightening of its cores before each major attack, like a spring loading before release.
Rama waited for the next compression, timing it perfectly, then used [Shadow Step] to appear on top of the Queen’s gelatinous body. The surface was disgustingly squishy under his boots, but it held his weight.
He drove his sword down into the nearest visible core with both hands. The Queen shrieked—a wet, bubbling sound—and began splitting apart in a defensive response.
Four smaller slis erged from its body, each the size of the earlier Elite. The Queen’s body shrank proportionally.
[SLI QUEEN - PHASE 2: FRAGNTATION]
All four split-offs rushed Rama simultaneously from different angles while the Queen’s main body retreated toward the acid pool.
Rama activated [Steel Body], feeling his skin harden into tallic-gray armor. The first Elite’s acid spray hit his shoulder and bounced off harmlessly. He moved with Budi’s training guiding every motion, cutting through the Elites one by one with surgical precision.
Only the Queen remained, its main body now exposed with just three cores visible inside the translucent pink gel.
Rama didn’t give it ti to co up with another strategy. He charged forward, activated [Phantom Strike] for maximum damage output, and drove his blade into all three remaining cores in rapid succession.
The Queen convulsed violently, let out one final bubbling wail, then collapsed inward and dissolved completely.
[SLI QUEEN DEFEATED]
[DUNGEON CLEARED]
[TOTAL TI: 14 MINUTES, 38 SECONDS]
[PERFORMANCE RATING: S-RANK]
[BONUS REWARDS GRANTED]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 20 → LEVEL 21]
[ITEMS ACQUIRED: SLI CORE x3, ACIDIC GEL x15, DUNGEON COMPLETION CHEST]
A golden chest materialized where the Queen had died. Rama opened it carefully. Inside he found 150,000 rupiah in cash, two F-Rank healing potions, and a skill book bound in green leather.
[SKILL BOOK: CORROSIVE RESISTANCE - RANK E]
[LEARN SKILL? YES/NO]
Rama selected YES and felt the knowledge flow into his mind.
More importantly, he’d just completed his first true solo dungeon from start to finish. No help. No backup. Just his skills, his training, and his determination.
And it had been almost easy.
Rama checked the ti on his phone: 2:32 AM. He had plenty of ti to get ho, clean up, and slip back into bed before Sekar woke at six.
Perfect execution.
The motorcycle ride back was easier than the journey out. Rama’s mind was already analyzing the fight, picking apart what he’d done well and what could improve.
He abandoned the motorcycle in the sa alley as before and made his way back to the building using [Shadow Step]. Three minutes later, he was back in the penthouse bathroom, stripping off his dungeon gear and checking himself for injuries in the mirror.
Not a scratch. Not even dirt on his clothes thanks to how cleanly slis dissolved.
He changed into his sleep clothes, deactivated [Presence Concealnt], and slipped back into bed with the practiced ease of soone who’d done this successfully multiple tis now.
Sekar was exactly where he’d left her, still clutching the pillow he’d substituted for himself. Rama gently extracted the pillow and replaced it with himself.
She unconsciously reached for him, pulling him close with that possessive grip, and settled back into deep sleep without ever waking.
He’d done it. A complete solo raid without leaving a trace.
[Hidden Quest Progress: 4/30]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: FIRST SOLO DUNGEON CLEAR]
[TITLE ACQUIRED: LONE HUNTER]
[EFFECT: 5% to all stats when fighting solo]
The notifications were simple. Cold. chanical. Just stating facts.
Rama closed his eyes, letting exhaustion finally claim him.
Level twenty-one now. Twenty-nine levels away from his goal. Twenty-six days remaining.
For the first ti, it felt achievable. Not easy—never easy—but possible.
Outside the bedroom window, Jakarta slept, unaware that one of its weakest registered Hunters had just taken another step toward becoming sothing far more dangerous.
In the morning, he’d wake up, make breakfast, play the perfect husband, maintain the lie.
But every night, in the shadows where Sekar couldn’t see, he would grow stronger.
One dungeon at a ti. One level at a ti. One secret at a ti.
Until the day ca when he could finally stand beside her as an equal.
Soon.
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE]
[OBJECTIVE: Clear 10 dungeons solo within 7 days]
[PROGRESS: 1/10]
[REWARD: ???]
[ACCEPT? YES/NO]
In his sleep, Rama’s hand twitched.
The System registered it as acceptance.
The ga continued.
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