I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 3

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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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03
Park Jin-seong stood transfixed, watching the scene unfold before him as if his mind had half detached from his body.
‘What… what just happened?’
Only moments ago he’d been pinned by a mob of goblins, staring death in the face.
The battle had dragged on, and though he’d managed to bring down two of them, after that he’d been scrambling just to defend himself, let alone attack.
‘And Min-joo’s mana ran dry.’
His teammate, Kim Min-joo, had been casting healing spells throughout the skirmish, but now her mana was exhausted—a grim situation either way.
They’d been teetering on the very edge of oblivion.
‘That’s when it happened.’
A mysterious young man had appeared suddenly from the undergrowth.
True, he was carrying a wounded person, so Jin-seong couldn’t be certain how much help that would be—but with their numbers so desperately thin, reinforcement was more than welcome.
Yet before offering aid, the youth had proposed a bargain.
‘I wasn’t convinced at first….’
Of course, Park Jin-seong had agreed without hesitation.
When you’re drowning, you don’t stop to ask if the straw will hold—you grab it.
But then the tide of battle shifted.
Dramatically. Devastatingly, even.
Every movement was decisive, each slash finding its mark with surgical precision.
With every flash of the youth’s blade, another goblin fell without struggle.
Jin-seong couldn’t make sense of it.
‘He’s not even especially fast or strong… but his movements are so clean. Did he somehow get kidnapped into some Tower Event? How far has he climbed? The tenth floor? No, he’s got to be at least fifteen levels deep.’
Society divided Awakeners into two camps.
The ‘Salary Types’—those who chose safety and cycled through the lower floors.
And the ‘Climbers’—those who risked their lives ascending the Tower.
As a Salary Type himself, Jin-seong could sense that the young man before him was fundamentally different.
‘Is he actually a Climber? So young, and yet….’
He could barely be past twenty, his face still had that boyish softness to it.
But that blade tip held no boyishness, no inexperience.
‘We’ll survive…! We can get out of here alive. With him on our side.’
Jin-seong wasn’t alone in his amazement.
His teammate, the healer Kim Min-joo, was equally stunned.
For a full year after awakening, she’d done nothing but clear floors one through three repeatedly.
She’d seen many Awakeners in that time, but never anything like this.
‘I thought we were going to die… but this easily?’
The difficulty was already beyond what the first floor could offer—goblins using poison, packs of seven strong, a nightmare scenario.
‘At this level… he’s got to be at least ten floors in.’
With her own record topping out at the third floor, she couldn’t even gauge the difficulty of the current zone.
Yet here he was, dismantling those same creatures that had nearly killed them with ease.
‘He’s already taken down three?’
By the time she’d regained her senses, the goblin count had dwindled from five to two.
It was nothing but shock, moment after moment.
If the humans being saved looked this stunned, the goblins dropping like flies had to be in even worse shape.
“Skreee! Skreeeee!”
Some kind of communication seemed to pass between them, and the remaining two goblins suddenly bolted.
Their words were gibberish, but everyone understood what they’d decided.
Of course, those two would soon follow their three companions.
“Over here! Drive that one this way!”
“I’m ready!”
One goblin fell to Jin-seong and Min-joo’s coordinated assault, the other to the youth’s hand.
‘Flash Slash.’
The blade flashed once more.
Not every strike from the youth had severed a goblin’s head cleanly.
Sometimes he’d parried an incoming weapon, or grazed his target with a shallow cut.
But whenever the blade gleamed, the goblin’s neck opened.
This time was no different.
Thud.
Its tough green hide, flesh and bone—none of it mattered.
After the Flash Slash passed, only a cleanly severed head remained on the ground.
And that was that.
The youth flicked the blood from his blade and turned his gaze toward Park Jin-seong and Kim Min-joo.
“This side is cleared.”
Park Jin-seong, who had dispatched the fleeing Goblin without difficulty, spoke hesitantly.
“Th-thank you so much. We’re alive because of you.”
“Thank you. Truly… you’re amazing.”
The two of them, despite their dazed expressions, did not forget to offer their gratitude.
The young man simply gave a slight nod, showing no particular emotion.
“Gratitude is unnecessary. It was a transaction, after all. What matters now is treating him. I’ve done my part. Now it’s your turn.”
The young man, Kim Si-hyeon, spoke in a low murmur.
“I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain. Now comes yours.”
* * *
The demand was clear.
I had done my part, and now it was their turn.
The healer swallowed hard, then approached Kim and extended her hand over his wound.
A faint hum.
Soon a dim glow seemed to emanate from her fingertips—
‘That should do it.’
Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief, that light faded weakly away.
“…?”
“Ah…!”
The healer dropped her hand in panic.
Without meaning to, a cold voice escaped me.
“What are you doing?”
“M-my Mana ran out. Fighting all those Goblins. Don’t worry! It’ll come back soon. Five minutes… no, ten minutes… that should be enough.”
The healer’s face crumpled as she rushed out excuses in desperation.
Fighting down the anger that welled up unbidden at those hollow words, I pressed her. “Ten minutes? Do you think we have that kind of time?”
“I’m not refusing to help—just give me a little time. Let me rest just a bit, and I’ll have enough Mana to cast one heal….”
Even now, Kim’s condition was deteriorating by the second.
Or rather, on the surface, he seemed to be improving.
But I could feel it in my bones.
It wasn’t that he was getting better—he was dying.
“Kim. You can’t fall asleep.”
I hurried to wake him, noticing his eyes beginning to close again despite the commotion of battle having roused him moments before.
“Ugh… Si-hyeon. What do I do? I’m so drowsy.”
“Kim. Stay focused. If you close your eyes now, you might not open them again.”
“That can’t happen… I have to see my wife and kids….”
This wasn’t mere drowsiness—it was vitality draining away.
No amount of willpower could fight it.
I needed to pull something off right now.
‘Wait—my Skill!’
The clue struck me, and I immediately called up my status window to check my abilities. Actually, the moment I thought to do so, the status window appeared before my eyes of its own accord.
[Awakener Information]
Name: Kim Si-hyeon
Highest Floor Reached: Floor 0
Skills Possessed: Shadow Mimic (Unique)
▶ Shadow Inscription: Flash Slash (D-)
“…?”
Wondering if this system responded to thought alone, I pressed forward with the next question on impulse.
‘How do I change the inscribed shadow? Or rather, what do I need to do to engrave a different shadow?’
[Activation Condition for Ability: Shadow contact with the target.]
※ You must step directly on the shadow of the target you wish to inscribe.
So that’s why it was called Shadow Mimic.
‘I stepped on Kim’s shadow when… when I stepped forward to borrow that fallen sword.’
That must have been it.
At this point, I had all the information I needed immediately.
“I think a method just occurred to me.”
“Pardon? How?”
“It’s difficult to explain.”
I had no desire to broadcast the activation conditions of my Skill to these people.
I was beginning to sense it myself.

That my skill was rather exceptional.
‘At least, among all the stories I’d picked up over the years, I’d never heard of anyone with this kind of ability.’
From my long experience, people grew aggressive just from watching someone else’s technique a few times and clumsily imitating it.
Even mere mimicry caused such a stir—but copying itself?
This was absolutely something I couldn’t go around broadcasting.
“Excuse me, Healer.”
“Yes?”
Of course, I couldn’t hide it entirely.
First, I needed to get Kim alive.
Instead, I mixed in a little deception.
“Forgive the intrusion, but I’d like to borrow your hands for a moment.”
“My hands? Well… it’s not difficult, but what are you planning to do?”
Caution flickered across her eyes.
“I’m going to save my colleague. You won’t suffer any harm or anything like that.”
My ability wasn’t so much about stealing someone’s power as copying it, so there’d be no damage to them. Probably.
‘This arrangement—I’ve done my part. These people are the ones falling short on theirs. I can demand at least this much.’
The healer glanced at Kim, as if checking whether they knew this too, then carefully opened both hands for me to see.
“Yes, well, if that’s the case… here.”
“Then, pardon me for a moment.”
I approached as if to take her hand, but secretly stepped on her shadow.
Immediately, a translucent message window appeared before my eyes.
[New shadow contact detected.]
[Target: Awakener ‘Kim Min-joo’]
[Activating unique ability ‘Shadow Mimic.’]
As if invisible threads connected my shadow to hers, a subtle sensation bloomed between us.
‘…Oh, this sensation?’
[Analyzing information…]
[Another shadow is already imprinted in the shadow imprinting slot.]
[To imprint a new shadow, you must remove the existing one. Do you wish to continue?]
‘So to gain one, I have to give up one….’
There was no choice.
Right now, what I needed wasn’t a sword—it was medicine.
‘Yes, imprint it.’
[Erasing existing shadow and imprinting new shadow.]
[Target possesses only a single skill.]
[Skipping selection and attempting shadow imprinting.]
Soon I felt fragments of her power flowing into me.
[Shadow imprint complete.]
[Shadow imprint: Healing Touch (Grade: C- / Source: Kim Min-joo)]
The ‘Healing Touch’ skill settled into my understanding as naturally as if I’d known it all along.
At the same time, the once-vivid sensation of ‘Flash Slash’ grew steadily dimmer.
‘That’s it.’
This much already felt like half the battle won.
With a lighter heart, I continued the treatment calmly.
“Brother Kim, you said earlier that you’d endure it like Guan Yu, remember?”
“Mm, yeah….”
“That still holds, doesn’t it?”
“Huh?”
Kim, half-delirious with exhaustion, was barely conscious.
His last response hadn’t sounded like agreement, but this wasn’t a request—it was a statement.
“Then I’ll pull the arrow out.”
“Wait, hold on—!”
Crack!
“Cough!”
Following the saying to seize the moment, I yanked the arrow out in one swift motion.
Just as I’d expected, blackened, rotted blood gushed forth.
“Healing Touch.”
I brought both hands close above it and cast the healing skill immediately.
Mana drained from me in an instant, and a warm glow kindled at my fingertips.
Where that light touched, the wound rapidly closed.
New flesh had sprouted across the blackened, necrotic tissue.
“W-what…! You’re a Healer? But why didn’t you do it yourself, and… no, that can’t be right—how does a Healer have that kind of combat power…?”
Kim Min-joo stared, visibly shaken.
And with good reason.
The person who’d demanded just moments ago that she heal his partner immediately had just done it himself.
Of course, she had no right to complain.
“Trade secret.”
The curt reply cut off any follow-up questions before they could form.
Why explain anything to someone who’d nearly sent Kim Jin-cheol to the grave, despite her trust?
Right now, he was what mattered.
“How are you feeling?”
“Uh… my head’s clearing up a bit. How did you…? A moment ago, I…”
“Sheesh, ‘trade secret’ and they keep pestering. These people.”
Why were they all so endlessly curious?
He waved his hand dramatically to redirect their attention.
“We can talk about it outside.”
“Ah, right. Sorry. It’s just so incredible… I got carried away.”
Kim Jin-cheol’s eyes were brighter now, his words flowing more freely—the effect was immediate and obvious.
Crisis averted.
“At this rate, he should be mobile soon. Since my colleague needs rest and you all look like you could use it too, how about we find a safer spot and take a break? This place is full of goblin corpses, and who knows what the smell of blood might attract.”
“Yes, that’s actually what we wanted to suggest as well. Let’s move somewhere secure, rest for a bit, and discuss what comes next.”
Both of them agreed instantly to the proposal.
“Just bear with me a little longer, then.”
As he reached down to hoist Kim Jin-cheol onto his back again, a message materialized before his eyes.
[You have demonstrated outstanding performance within the Tower’s Guidance.]
[The Tower’s Gaze turns toward you. You may be granted new trials or opportunities.]
Gaze? Like it was secretly watching?
The sensation unsettled him, his brow furrowing of its own accord.
“Gaze… what does that even…”
But that uneasy feeling hadn’t even faded when—
KROOOOAAAAAAAGH—!
A deafening roar that shook the entire Swamp!
Startled birds shrieked and scattered in a panicked flutter.
…!
This was nothing like the shrill shrieks of the goblins he’d heard before.
Every cell in his body screamed a warning.
‘That’s it.’
That was the thing ruling this Swamp.
Before his racing heart could settle, another message flashed into view.
But this one was different from anything before.
[Warning: The Swamp Ruler has become aware of your existence.]
A red message—one he’d never seen before.
Crimson and stark, thick with unmistakable killing intent.
Ice crawled down his spine.
‘Trials and opportunities, they said… so it’s a trial. One hell of a grim trial.’
If it was coming like this, he had no choice.
‘Then I’ll take my due. I’ll wring every bit of that “opportunity” out of this.’
* * *
After the commotion settled and they relocated, he used the spare time to carefully verify that nothing had slipped past him.
‘Tell me about my unique ability, Shadow Mimic.’
[Conditions not met. Limited information will be provided.]
[Your unique ability Shadow Mimic currently allows extraction and imprinting of only one skill per day.]
※ Skills automatically imprinted upon initial Awakening are not counted toward this limit.
※ Once a skill is extracted from a target, that target’s shadow will no longer respond to Shadow Mimic.
‘…What?’
A bolt from the blue.
That meant no matter how many times he touched Kim Jin-cheol’s shadow, Flash Slash would never come back.
‘Damn it. This complicates things.’
The Healing Touch skill he’d gained by giving up Flash Slash wasn’t bad in itself.
But the lack of an offensive technique would cost him dearly.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, a small clearing appeared ahead—perfect for a brief rest.
“This spot should work fine for a quick break.”
“Ah, yes… all right, let’s rest here for a moment.”
The moment we settled into our seats, Park Jin-seong spoke up first.
“Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Kim Min-joo. As you can see, I’m a healer—that’s my role. My highest floor cleared is the third.”
“Park Jin-seong. As for my position, you could think of me as a warrior or tank. I’ve made it up to the fourth floor.”
“Kim Si-hyeon.”
That was my introduction in full.
Since I’d only just Awakened today, I had no record of floor clears to speak of, unlike the other two.
And mentioning that I’d Awakened today seemed more trouble than it was worth, so I left it out.
“Kim Jin-cheol. I know I look rough at the moment… but I’ve climbed as far as the fifth floor. You can think of me as a warrior as well.”
Once the introductions were finished, the most pressing matter rose to the surface.
“I’ll be direct with you both. Si-hyeon, Jin-cheol—would it be all right if we traveled together until the boss is defeated?”
Park Jin-seong asked carefully, proposing cooperation.
Kim Min-joo added a word right after.
“Earlier I wasn’t much help and things were rough, but… if we work together, it’ll make a real difference. I’m sure of it!”
Would they really be that helpful?
Truth be told, I’d taken down most of the Goblins on my own just before; those two had only finished off the one that fled. I couldn’t gauge how strong they actually were.
‘Besides, I did ask them to protect Jin-cheol rather than fight directly…’
Either way, this wasn’t a call I should make on my own. I turned to Kim Jin-cheol, who had more experience climbing the Tower.
“What do you think?”
Kim Jin-cheol, gradually recovering from the paralysis, answered while carefully rolling his shoulders where he sat.
“I think we should go together.”
It was the answer I’d expected.
Truth was, I’d already given it thought, and my own view wasn’t much different.
‘If defeating the boss is the priority, cooperation beats competition.’
Even if they weren’t much help, as long as they didn’t slow us down.
Four of us was better than two, all things considered.
“All right. Let’s go together then.”
At those words, the two of them brightened visibly.
Of course, now that we were committed, I made one thing clear.
“But there’s something I need to address first.”
“Yes, of course. Please, speak freely.”
“In the battle ahead, my combat strength won’t be the same as when I dealt with those Goblins. I can manage healing, though. It’s related to my Awakened ability, and I can’t explain the details… but if you’re still willing to work with me, I’ll go.”
The days of carving through Goblins like that were over.
If they couldn’t accept that, or if they kept questioning my abilities, working together wouldn’t be possible—a careful way of drawing the line.
“Well…”
Kim Min-joo seemed to have more questions, opening her mouth to speak.
But Park Jin-seong slowly shook his head, cutting her off.
“No, Min-joo. Let’s just trust them. We wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for their help.”
Kim Min-joo closed her mouth, though clearly not entirely satisfied.
Park Jin-seong offered me a warm smile and extended his hand for a handshake.
“Then I’ll be counting on you both until we get out of here. Si-hyeon.”
I reached out and clasped his hand.
“I’ll be counting on you both as well.”
And so our four-person party was formed on the spot.
All that remained was to find the boss, defeat it, and escape this place safely.
“Well then, we’ve rested long enough. Shall we head out?”
Kim Jin-cheol had recovered enough to move without difficulty, and the rest of us were ready.
It was time to go.
“Ah, Si-hyeon. Before we leave, shouldn’t we think through where the boss might be first?”
“There’s no need.”
“Pardon?”
Not just Park Jin-seong, who had posed the question, but the other two as well—all three faces filled with confusion at my calm certainty.
Looking at those expressions, a faint smile crept across my lips.
“I can see it right now. Where the boss is.”
The warning message I’d received earlier—the boss had acknowledged my presence.
But it wasn’t one-sided.
‘Trial and opportunity, they said. And opportunity is exactly what I’m getting.’
The Swamp Ruler.
Far in the distance, a crimson message window floated in the void.
It was telling him something.
That he was there.
Just by stepping on a shadow, the skill copied instantly
Author |
Killing Part
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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Editorial Department
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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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