I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 17

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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17
Since I’d committed to attempting this Trial, I had to figure out what to do with the egg first.
‘I can’t carry this thing in one hand and fight at the same time.’
The easiest solution would be to store it in my Inventory—but of course, the System wasn’t going to make it that simple.
[This item cannot be stored in your Inventory.]
“Right. I had a feeling it would be like that.”
This so-called mission to protect the egg, after all.
There was no way that cursed tower would let me stash the egg safely in my Inventory and just look after myself.
“But I’d already thought of a backup plan.”
I turned my attention to the cart nearby that held the plunder.
A jumble of junk—items too worthless to be catalogued, excluded even from automatic collection.
‘It looks like garbage now, but… ah, this will do nicely.’
I found exactly what I needed among the debris.
Raw hide, apparently from a four-legged beast.
“A dog… a wolf, something like that.”
Untanned, still matted with fur, flesh, and blood, it reeked with a sickening stench.
Truly, ‘now I understand why it wasn’t even worth taking as an item.’
“But gods, it’s tough as anything.”
That was good enough for me.
I wrapped the hide around my torso, positioning it in front like a swaddling cloth for an infant.
I nestled the egg inside carefully and filled the remaining space with dry straw from the cart’s bottom for cushioning.
‘This works as padding too.’
Finally, I crossed the four legs of the hide and bound them tight, finishing a sturdy makeshift pack.
It looked ridiculous with fur and straw flying loose, and the smell was absolutely foul, but this wasn’t the time to be fussy.
Because by then, the green goblins had nearly reached me.
“Hell. So I’m charging straight into that. They’re swarming like insects.”
What choice did I have? I was the one who’d chosen this.
I secured the egg firmly in its makeshift sling and readied myself for combat.
“Hold tight. Things are going to get rough.”
All right. Time to meet the green tide.
* * *
Twenty minutes? Thirty? I’d lost all sense of time.
I’d slipped into a fugue state, carving through the endless tide of enemies.
In that blurred passage of hours, the only measure of time’s movement was the Yasanggok’s blade, glowing red-hot and shimmering with heat haze.
‘So hot. No—burning.’
Just holding it upright sent waves of searing heat washing through my arms.
“Kyaaaagh!”
Two more goblins hurled themselves at me with screams, giving me no chance to catch my breath.
“Damn you!”
Slash!
The dark blade traced an arc following my arm’s movement.
The goblin soldier caught in that line split cleanly in two like tissue paper.
Squelch.
The raw, acrid stench of underdone goblin flesh grazed my nostrils in its wake.
“Ugh… hah…”
My breath came ragged, drawn to the back of my throat.
I’d expected this wouldn’t be easy, but the sheer number of them exceeded my worst imaginings.
No matter how many I killed, there were always more.
And the egg nestled against my chest—gods, how it weighed on me.
Every moment brought the terror that it might shatter, doubling my exhaustion.
If there was any silver lining, it was that the egg seemed to shield me from ranged attacks.
I could feel it clearly in the thick of the fight.
They wanted this egg too.
So their target wasn’t my life—it was the hostage I was carrying.
“What the hell is inside this thing for them to want it so badly?”
I was curious too.
But right now, I was far more curious about whether I’d make it out of here alive.
‘There are so many. Far too many.’
By my count, I’d cut down well over a hundred of them through sheer brutality, yet I wasn’t even halfway to my destination.
Meanwhile, my stamina was approaching its limit.
Even deploying my own optimized swordplay—stripped down through the Beginning of Training to remove every unnecessary flourish—still yielded only this much.
‘I’ve burned through my Potions, and I can’t keep going like this. If I stay locked in this war of attrition, I’ll collapse before I even reach the Canyon.’
I cut down another creature and seized the brief moment of respite that followed.
A torrent of thoughts crashed through my mind.
‘Should I give up? At this rate, I really will die.’
No—not unless the blade was already at my throat.
Everything I’d done so far would be wasted.
If quitting made me sick and dying made me sicker, I had to find some other angle, some sharp move I’d overlooked.
‘In a situation like this…’
There was only one way out: flip the table entirely.
The Mission the Tower laid out was merely the bare minimum for success.
There had to be another path.
There was when I was first dragged into the Tower, and again during the Trial on the second floor.
Some variable, outside the System’s obvious solution, that could overturn the entire game.
‘There’s something this time too. There has to be. I just haven’t found it yet.’
The Tower’s ecology—its Missions, rewards, monsters—took the shape of a game, but it was reality nonetheless.
Since dying in the Tower meant actually dying, no one could deny that the Tower was real.
‘And if it’s real, there can’t be only one solution.’
The moment my thoughts cleared, so did my vision.
Instead of fixating on the immediate threat before me, I took in the grand flow of the entire battlefield.
And there—I found something wrong.
Far off, perched atop a Hill, sat a creature that didn’t belong.
“…!”
A scarlet goblin astride a wolf.
Unlike the green runts most people picture when they hear “goblin,” this one had beet-red skin and a frame so massive you’d swear it was an orc, not a goblin at all.
Among the rabble of lesser goblins, it stood out like a crane among chickens.
‘A boss. If there’s another variable to find here, it’s that thing.’
My survival instinct screamed it. My gut knew it.
Cut down that creature, and this all ends.
‘But I can’t be certain.’
To my left, the Canyon still seemed distant.
To my right, the red goblin on the Hill.
A choice was pressing in on me.
Push left and force my way through, or turn right and shatter the entire board.
‘What do I do? One path has the Tower’s guarantee, and the other is just a gamble on my hunch….’
My own predicament struck me as absurd, and a thin laugh escaped.
“Heh.”
Here I was, life hanging by a thread, nursing this stupid deliberation.
‘Obviously the first option. That’s the sane choice.’
Going after a boss the Tower never even mentioned.
Only a lunatic would have reason to try that.
But then again.
Anyone risking their life to climb the Tower was mad to begin with.
And I’d never been the most gracefully insane among them.
“…All right. From here on, I’m doing this my way.”
I steeled my resolve and turned from the only safe path I’d believed in until now.
Only then did the ground I’d crossed become clear to me.
The way I’d come. The way I could go again.
Across the sand-colored Wasteland, the red path gouged by goblin blood looked like a red carpet.
As if to say: follow this way.
“Such a grand welcome—I’d be rude to refuse. Haah!”
I drove off the ground and tore down that path.
Instantly, a crimson warning flared before my eyes.
[Warning: You are heading in an incorrect direction.]
“I know.”
[Alert: No Mission objective exists on your current path.]
This time, not a warning—a full alert.
“I’ll handle it myself.”
I kept ignoring the System’s guidance, and then came the heavy-handed warning.
[Warning: You are deviating from the designated route into unknown territory. This may result in fatal consequences. All responsibility for these outcomes belongs solely to the Awakener.]
A long red message.
Since I’d already made up my mind, it was nothing but an obstacle.
“Be quiet, you’re annoying!”
The System sent no further warnings.
As if it had given up on persuading me.
The nuisance was gone. I kicked my speed up another notch.
“Krrk?”
“Kree! Kiru, kiruuk!”
The goblins exchanged a few panicked chirps among themselves, caught off guard by my sudden burst of speed.
Soon they seemed to realize something had gone wrong and scrambled to block my path.
But most of their forces were concentrated toward the Canyon.
The defense line on this side had never expected combat to erupt here—it was bound to be thin.
From the start, they were never a match for me.
They’d only been holding ground through sheer numbers.
‘But what if the numbers aren’t there?’
Which meant.
‘It’s easy.’
Like dumping a heavy load halfway up a flight of stairs and bounding back down.
Going backwards was absurdly simple.
“Kreeee!”
One of the goblins, oblivious to the gap between us, charged headlong.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
I combined the speed of its charge with my own momentum and drove the sword point straight through its skull.
Crack!
The blade crushed bone and pulped brain.
When I pulled the sword free, something pale and wet clung to the black blade of the Yasanggok, but I felt no revulsion anymore.
There was nothing in my mind but ending this wretched combat.
The goblin I’d struck first and all the others blocking my way—they fell with each touch of my blade.
I no longer needed swordcraft to clear a path.
Simply swinging the Yasanggok, glowing red-hot as if freshly pulled from a forge, was enough.
All that remained were corpses and charred, blackened cross-sections.
Until now, I’d been managing my strength with every breath, stealing glances at the Canyon and calculating the remaining distance.
Well, I’ve come this far—this much is fine.
I’ve made it this far—this much is fine.
But if I’m measuring by the distance to the goal, it’s at most three minutes away.
‘There’s no reason to hold back. I’ll pour everything into these three minutes and finish it.’
I unleashed all the power I’d been saving, charging forward with abandon, and the small creatures scattered like autumn leaves before a gale.
Like a predator loosed among a flock of sheep.
As I swept through them, I felt something thunder behind me in pursuit.
The goblins stationed at the approach to the Canyon were chasing after me with desperate speed.
‘Come on then. As if you could catch me.’
But the gap would never close.
The only distance closing was between me and the goblin chief.
‘Getting in range soon…!’
The target drew near, almost within reach.
Grrr!
The wolf riders blocked my path.
They couldn’t let me get to their chief uncontested.
Clang! Clang!
A wolf snapped and snarled, baring its fangs.
Nearly simultaneously, the wolf rider’s Studded Iron Club came at my head with lethal intent.
But—
‘This much won’t stop me…!’
This wasn’t enough to slow me down.
Tap!
I drove my right foot hard into the ground, pivoted sharply left, and slashed sideways.
The wolf’s neck, which had snapped at thin air, opened under my blade.
Squelch!
The wolf collapsed without a sound, spraying blood, its body crumpling.
“Kek?!”
A fall from the saddle. Or rather, a tumble that left the goblin too dazed to even stand—a bonus casualty.
I trampled the shadow of the headless wolf straight into the ground.
‘One Bite!’
I hadn’t wasted it on common goblins. This One Bite, hoarded until now.
My shadow’s head gaped open at an angle that should have been impossible, and it devoured the wolf’s shadow whole with a sickening crunch.
[You have temporarily inscribed the signature skill ‘Leap (E+)’ from the target’s shadow.]
‘Excellent!’
I’d hoped the signature skill of a mount might yield something worthwhile, and the System had delivered exactly what I needed in this moment.
There was no reason to face the remaining wolf riders.
They were already within striking distance.
I gripped the Yasanggok, burning crimson, in both hands and launched myself skyward.
‘Leap!’
My feet drove hard against the earth, and the world lurched and swapped in an instant.
Whoosh!
At that speed, I rocketed upward a good three meters.
The wolves and their riders stared dumbly overhead, like dogs chasing a hen.
At the apex, my gaze locked with the war chief’s—my true target from the start.
“…!”
Yellow eyes wide with shock.
Only now did he grasp my intent, his hand belatedly reaching for his weapon—but it was already too late.
‘You’re finished.’
Already poised above his skull.
I poured every last shred of mana into the blade, and gravity’s acceleration added its weight to the descent.
Whoosh-crack!
“…!”
In that instant, brilliant crimson flames blazed across the falling steel.
As if all my yearning—everything I had staked on this single stroke—had burned itself into the Yasanggok.
My entire strength converged into one point, one perfect slash.
‘Burn bright.’
Screeeee!
A brilliant scarlet arc traced from heaven to earth.
Fire descended.
I copied a skill just by stepping on the shadow
Author |
Killingpart
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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This work may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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