I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 20

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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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20
A pleasant weight and warmth pressed against my chest.
When I opened my eyes slowly, I found a dark furry mass perched squarely on my chest, kneading away like fresh bread.
It was the classic loaf pose—what people call the cat loaf, with all four paws tucked neatly beneath its body.
“Meow!”
Seeing that I’d woken, Bami chirped a morning greeting, her violet eyes gleaming with delight.
I couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
“Yeah, I slept well. Did you sleep well too?”
Bami meowed back in her own insistent way as I carefully lifted her from my chest, then rose from bed to begin the day.
“Let’s see, today I should….”
My first thought was to head straight to the fourth floor and tackle that golden Goblin—not that I had any better name for it, since that’s what everyone else called it.
‘More like a petty-thief Goblin, really.’
I was eager to challenge that creature rumored to shower items upon defeat, but there was somewhere else I needed to visit first.
“I should get my gear sorted out too.”
I decided to postpone tower climbing until the afternoon and visit an item broker first.
I could handle everything online, of course, but if there was something usable in stock right now, I could grab it immediately, and besides, I was curious to browse in person.
Nobody knew.
Nobody knew that the Favored One whose name had graced the front page of every newspaper for the past few days had achieved those EX and EX+ records wearing nothing but sweatpants and a single sword.
‘Still, if I’m going to call myself the Favored One, I should at least look the part. And frankly, I’d prefer not to die.’
The Trial on the second floor had been no joke, but the third floor was something else entirely.
Even if I couldn’t afford expensive, high-quality gear, I figured I needed to at least throw on some kind of armor.
I moved with purpose, completed my preparations, and made sure to set out Bami’s food.
“Bami, come eat.”
She heard the word “eat” with supernatural precision and scampered over, immediately lapping at my shadow.
I couldn’t imagine that counted as real food, yet she ate with such obvious relish.
On impulse, I pointed to another shadow and suggested she try that one, but she ignored me completely.
‘…What makes my shadow different?’
Ah, well. It was different.
‘Right, yeah. Very different, actually.’
With Bami’s meal taken care of, I was finally ready to leave.
“I’ll be back soon. Keep watch over the house. I should be home before lunch, so you won’t miss a meal.”
I gave her one last stroke and turned toward the entrance, but Bami’s short legs carried her padding frantically ahead of me, cutting off my path.
“Meow, meow, meow!”
Just as I’d feared, Bami had no intention of letting me leave without a fight.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t be together all the time. You can just eat shadow scraps and call it a day, but I’m different. I have to work to put food on the table.”
“Meow?”
Those gem-like violet eyes blinked at me as she tilted her head, and it looked exactly like she was thinking, ‘Why won’t you eat shadow?’
“If you really want to come along, you could always go into my Inventory.”
I opened my Inventory to show her, but Bami had no interest in getting in, and the Inventory had no ability to force her in.
“There’s no help for it. Just stay home and be good.”
What happened next was a repeat of last night.
The moment I stepped outside, she wailed—”Mew-eeeow!”—and I couldn’t bring myself to leave.
“Sigh….”
In the end, I stepped back inside.
I plopped down on the floor and sat stroking Bami while I wrestled with the problem.
“I can’t leave her alone when she’s crying like this, but if I take her with me, those wings are going to be impossible to hide. If only she’d stay out of sight, I’d take her no matter what. Maybe I could dress her up in something….”
That was when it happened.
It was as if Bami understood my predicament.
As I stroked her, still whimpering softly, she suddenly squirmed through the gap between my cross-legged knees and dove forward.
“Hey, slow down. You’ll hurt yourself doing that….”
Something felt wrong.
Had I just seen something I shouldn’t have?
“…Huh?”
Bami had darted between my legs and simply vanished before my eyes.
I searched frantically, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
I startled in alarm and called out her name.
“Bami…? Bami!”
Then my shadow rippled slightly, and her head poked out from within it, tilting in confusion.
“Meow?”
Oblivious to my shock, she regarded me with an innocent expression—’Did you call me?’
I was so startled by how suddenly it vanished.
Relief washed over me, and I let out a hollow laugh.
“Well… there was a way to do this.”
* * *
Temdarfarm—South Korea’s largest item trading intermediary.
Back when the Tower first appeared on the Korean peninsula and order hadn’t yet taken hold, the founder supposedly started by laying out a street stall, or so the story goes.
Twenty years later, a magnificent building now stood in the heart of Seoul.
‘Wow… a Seoul office building built on item brokerage commissions alone.’
The scale rivaled even the headquarters of megacorporations whose names everyone knew.
It really drove home how vast the Awakener-related industry had become.
‘Korea has a hundred thousand Awakeners, after all… ten thousand is definitely not a small number.’
And on top of that, the equipment those Awakeners carry doesn’t come cheap.
‘Maybe the real answer isn’t mining for gold—it’s selling the pickaxes…?’
From the moment I stepped past the entrance, I felt an odd weight to the space, and I swallowed hard as the ‘delicious scent’ of the people passing through greeted me.
‘Nine out of every ten people passing by are Awakeners.’
The interior was indistinguishable from a well-appointed department store.
The vast atrium on the first floor’s center rose all the way to the topmost level, and suspended in the void like a chandelier hung the skeletal frame of some immense flying monster.
The décor screamed ‘This is where Tower items are traded.’
‘…Will that thing not fall? At that height, even a small bone fragment dropping would kill someone.’
Surely a company that could build a building this size would have taken precautions against that.
Realizing I’d been stupid to worry, I chuckled and picked up a directory from the display near the entrance.
‘All right, where should I head first.’
1F: Consumables / Appraisal / Purchase / Customer Service
2F: Bladed Weapons
3F: Melee Weapons (excluding blades)
4F: Ranged Weapons
5F: Magical Equipment
6F: Armor
…
12F: VIP Lounge / Private Auction House
True to the Temdarfarm name, everything was packed in without a gap.
Nothing was missing.
‘First, I’ll get an appraisal.’
The appraisal office was my first destination.
Since they offered free appraisals of up to five items per customer at the physical location, I figured I’d get a rough sense of what the equipment was worth.
I headed straight for the place.
Fortunately, since they’d opened early, there was barely anyone waiting.
‘Oh, the line’s short. Glad I came out early.’
I took a number ticket like you would at a bank and waited briefly before my turn came around.
“Welcome, valued customer. What brings you in today?”
The bright, polished smile that capitalism in the service industry had perfected.
A woman who looked about my age greeted me.
“Ah, I’d like to start by checking this one.”
I pulled out the Plunderer’s Red Cuirass that I’d obtained from the Trial on the third floor yesterday and handed it over.
The appraiser took the item and turned it over in her hands, examining it from every angle.
After a moment, as if something had occurred to her, she tilted her head and asked me a question.
“By any chance… did you personally hunt down and acquire this item?”
“Yes, I did, but… why? Is something wrong with it?”
“Oh, no, nothing wrong at all. It’s just that we don’t have this item in our database. That’s impressive—you’ve already climbed to a floor where such rare items appear.”
Starting with that encouraging compliment, the explanation that followed could be summarized this way: conservatively speaking, at minimum eight million won, and if auctioned, it could fetch over thirteen million.
A Rare Grade piece was certainly precious.
‘All that hardship was worth it.’
Next, I was curious about Yasanggok, the highest-grade item I currently owned, so I asked about it.
Of course, I didn’t take it out recklessly.
I simply asked in a roundabout way.
“By the way, how much does a Masterpiece Grade longsword usually go for?”
Most crimes targeting Awakeners started when they exposed expensive equipment.
“Yes, a longsword, I see. Is there a specific option you’re looking for?”
“Oh, no, I’m just curious about the general price range.”
“Well, longswords are a very high-demand item. For Masterpiece Grade, the opening bid is usually around thirty million won, and most transactions happen in the fifty-million-won range.”
A Masterpiece Grade item at this level.
What’s more, Yasanggok wasn’t even a Masterpiece—it was a Masterwork Grade item.
“Then Masterwork Grade would be…?”
“The starting price begins in the tens of millions, but beyond that point, I’m afraid it becomes difficult for us to give you a precise figure. Even within the same grade, prices vary wildly depending on the special effects.”
Tens of millions. The number alone drew an involuntary gasp from my throat.
Not that I actually let it escape—I caught myself and swallowed it down.
‘Good thing I kept my mouth shut. I can’t go around bragging about this carelessly.’
Now only the final appraisal remained.
‘Just the helmet left.’
The Toothed Iron Crown I’d obtained on the second floor.
I’d originally planned to sell it, since it seemed like equipment a Summoner would use….
‘Hmm, is Bami a summoned creature?’
The thought of Bami gave me pause, though whether he counted as a summon at all remained uncertain.
More to the point, I had no desire to put that small, delicate creature into actual combat.
The very idea sat poorly with me.
‘No, I’ll just grow stronger myself. This should go.’
I pulled out the helmet and handed it over.
“This would be the last one, please.”
“Of course, sir. I have the item.”
Then came the familiar wait.
‘I wonder what this one will fetch….’
That’s when it happened.
“Meep?”
A small voice came from my chest—from inside my shirt, to be precise.
“…?”
I looked down to find a dark mass of fur poking its face up through the neckline, gazing at me.
‘When did this little troublemaker get out—!’
I panicked and quickly stuffed him back into the shadows beneath my clothes.
“Hush.”
He’d wandered out on his own, true enough, but when I pushed him back in, he went obediently.
Crisis averted, I glanced around quickly.
Fortunately, the people waiting in line were absorbed in their phones.
The appraiser in front was focused intently on the helmet, barely aware of anything else.
“Phew….”
“Sir?”
The appraiser looked up at the sound of my sigh.
“Oh, don’t mind it. Keep working. It was just an exclamation—you know, of shock. The prices on these higher-grade items are quite something.”
She smiled knowingly.
“You’ve already obtained Rare Grade items yourself, so it won’t be long before Masterpiece and Masterwork grades are within reach.”
“Ha, ha… yes, I hope so.”
I could feel cold sweat beginning to trickle down my back.
The appraiser turned her attention back to the item, then spoke again with an apologetic tone.
“The appraisal result for this item is 6 million won. The performance is solidly Rare Grade, but… since Summoner-exclusive items have a limited pool of buyers, it’s difficult to fetch the full value the grade would normally command.”
Six million won?
Six hundred million won for an item I couldn’t even use.
As she’d said, it was less than the cuirass of the same grade, but this was more than acceptable.
Not that wearing it as a helmet alone, without any special properties, would be impossible—but there was no reason to do so.
Better to sell it and buy something useful with the money instead.
“The price you just gave me—that was the immediate sale value, correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
She hesitated, then asked carefully.
“Are you thinking of selling it to us right away?”
“Yes, I was considering it.”
“Well… if I were in your position, I don’t think I’d sell this right away.”
“…Really? Why not?”
I looked at her with confusion, and she elaborated.
“As I mentioned, equipment with Summoner-related options doesn’t attract many buyers, but when it does, prices can fluctuate significantly.”
“Ah, I see.”
Well, I hadn’t known that.
“That’s why I’d like to suggest this: what if you put it up for auction on our platform? It will take some time, but if a few Summoner-class Awakeners participate, you could fetch two or three times the immediate sale price—or even more. There would be additional fees, but an item like this is worth it in my opinion, so I’d recommend it.”
Expert advice worth its weight in gold.
There was no reason not to do it if it meant more money.
It wasn’t as though I’d starve to death without an extra six million won right now.
“Thank you for the helpful information. I’ll try listing it at Auction just as you suggested.”
I thanked the courteous clerk and headed straight for the item purchase counter on the same floor.
Though Temdarfarm had started as merely a trading intermediary, the business had grown large enough that they’d been handling direct purchases and sales for some time now.
Since I was already here, I’d decided to convert all the crafting materials I’d been collecting and the various scrap-tier equipment into cash.
‘The atmosphere here is completely different.’
The exchange resembled the checkout counter of a department store.
Beep. Beep.
While the mechanical sound of item-grade verification rang out ceaselessly, dozens of Awakeners stood in line before various counters, waiting their turn.
A place where swift, accurate processing was valued over friendly consultation.
I took my place at the end of one of the lines and waited my turn.
When my turn came, the clerk beyond the counter mechanically inspected the materials I’d handed over and recited the price in a lifeless voice.
“Two large serrated tusks, plus a total of 105 material items and 1 low-tier equipment item—total purchase price comes to 7.8 million won. Will you sell?”
“Yes, all of it.”
“Payment will be issued after deducting an 8% purchase fee. Once you confirm the settlement amount, please sign here.”
‘Eight percent. I heard the government purchase centers charge 5%.’
A three percent difference.
Three percent of 7.8 million won amounted to a whopping 230,000 won.
Nearly half a month’s rent…!
‘…My hands are trembling a bit, I admit.’
But when I thought of it as the price of staying hidden, it wasn’t so expensive after all.
‘I need to get used to losing money to fees anyway. Even after the cut, I’m getting nearly 7.2 million—that’s not bad.’
Without hesitation, I signed with a flourish.
That was how I disposed of most of my crafting materials and completed the conversion to cash.
Just watching 7.2 million won added to my account made me feel completely secure.
‘Good. Now for the next phase… shopping!’
My pockets were definitely heavier now.
Time to graduate from cheap track pants.
I Only Copied Skills by Stepping on Shadows
Author |
Killingpart
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dreambooks
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7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703072
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the express written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dreambooks.

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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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