I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 30

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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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30
[Quest Objective Achieved]
“Phew…”
By the time I’d filled the quota of thirty, the Fortress had fallen deathly silent.
While chaos erupted on the City Wall, the rest of them had abandoned any thought of helping and scattered like roaches.
“Tsk. No loyalty in these creatures.”
Either way, the basic Quest on Floor 10 was done. Just as I’d expected—perfect warm-up material.
“So I’ll collect the reward, and… ugh, nothing to show for it.”
Another blank day on the basic Quest front.
Though there was one thing I could count on securing.
[Growth Condition Achieved]
[Skill ‘Basic Sword Technique (D)’ has advanced to ‘Fundamental Sword Technique (D+)’.]
“There we go—that’s the real prize. Didn’t even expect loot, honestly.”
By my reckoning, I’d harvested everything Floor 10 had to offer.
My original goal for today was Floor 10.5 anyway, so now it was time to move forward.
Of course, there was one more wall to climb before that.
[Do you wish to challenge the Trial of Floor 10?]
“I do.”
[Beginning the Trial of Sovereignty.]
Ku-ku-ku-ku—
A heavy rumble and tremor echoed from somewhere unseen.
The massive door at the heart of the Fortress, which had been firmly sealed until now, began to creak open.
Beyond it lay only darkness of unknowable depth.
A red carpet greeted me at my feet, as if beckoning me into that abyss.
“So I’m being invited, am I? Then I won’t be rude. I’ll step right in.”
Soft footstep.
The moment I cautiously set foot inside.
Whoosh!
A single torch on the wall burst into flame of its own accord, illuminating the darkness.
As if that were a signal, the torches lining the hall’s depth ignited in succession, spilling their light.
“Oh.”
At the end of that grand illumination.
The darkness lifted, and far down the hall, a resplendent Jade Throne came into view.
A single goblin perched upon it, legs crossed in insufferable arrogance.
“Keru! Ki-keruk!”
A Golden Crown sat askew on its head, slipping down.
A Cloak dragged across the floor.
Rings—so many that all ten fingers couldn’t hold them—crammed onto every available digit.
This was pearls before swine incarnate.
“The Fortress lies in ruins, yet its king adorns himself in luxury?”
Now I understood why the stronghold looked like a beggar’s patch job. Looking at what this creature was wearing, it all made sense.
“Kia! Keru keru-ruk!”
So enraged by something, the goblin pointed a finger at me and raised its shrill voice.
“Ow, my ears. Honestly, no matter how many times I hear goblin speech, I never get used to that screeching.”
I didn’t understand goblin tongue, but I could piece together what it meant well enough.
‘How dare you show such disrespect! Do you not know whose presence you stand before?’ Something like that, given the crown and all.
“But what are you, anyway?”
Strip away the decorations, and this creature was no different from the common goblin grunts I’d seen on Floor 1.
“Honestly ordinary when you look at it properly… what’s it hiding?”
Maybe it bloats up into something huge the moment I land a hit on it, wailing ‘Aaahhh!’
That could be it. The Tower wouldn’t present a gilded goblin grunt as a Trial, after all.
‘There’s nothing around us though…?’
The only thing that caught my eye was a decorative suit of Armor standing beside it.
‘That’s empty too though? What is it?’
As I was trying to divine the puzzle-setter’s intent, the System slid an answer key right before my eyes.
[Quest Objective: Eliminate the False Claimant Goldin.]
“False Claimant?”
I’d pegged it for just another run-of-the-mill goblin grunt from the start, yet the System declared it an official Usurper.
Was this some kind of gift round? Except the Tower wouldn’t do that.
“…Ah, forget it.”
Once I drive the blade in, it’ll reveal what’s underneath.
A metallic scrape.
“Now, if you’ve got anything hidden, you’d better show it quick.”
Whoosh!
The moment the words left my mouth, I lunged forward with the blade leveled at it.
The distance closed in a heartbeat.
No obstacles. No defense.
Just a lone goblin sitting still, waiting for death.
‘Is it really this easy?’
The dark blade was about to find its mark when—
Screech!
“…!”
A sharp sound of blade-cutting air pierced my ear.
I reflexively twisted the tip to parry it.
Clang!
“Tch.”
Sparks bloomed between the two locked blades.
The culprit behind the ambush was the suit of armor standing vacant beside the Jade Throne.
“Well, what? Was someone inside the whole time?”
Creak.
Beyond the crossed blades, there was nothing but absolute darkness.
There was no ‘person’ where one ought to be inside the armor.
“Huh…?”
Whoosh!
In an instant, a pair of flames kindled within the empty helm’s visor.
“Oh. It’s got eyes now.”
At the same moment, a system message materialized.
[Quest Updated]
[Primary Objective: Defeat Guard Commander Living Armor Cryx.]
A smirk escaped my lips.
“Yeah, now this feels like a real trial.”
* * *
Metal shrieked.
The thing rushed forward before my words had even finished.
‘Fast. But this much…!’
Not so fast I couldn’t keep pace.
Clang!
Blades collided.
Sparks erupted.
A heavy shock reverberated through my wrist.
‘Strong too, but… I’ve got the edge.’
At this point, it didn’t seem particularly threatening.
The problem came next.
Screech!
Using the recoil from the locked blades to spin in a complete circle, it came at my throat with a slashing arc.
“…Ugh!”
Caught off guard by the move, I lurched my head back.
Whoosh!
The blade swept past my nose, and cold ran down my spine.
One moment slower, and my head would’ve been severed clean off.
‘What the hell was that just now…!’
Like watching a dance of blades—I was startled, but only for an instant.
Seizing the gap as its movement expanded, I thrust the Nocturne into its exposed right flank. Aiming for its wrist.
‘Got it.’
The timing was absolutely perfect.
But the result didn’t match my expectation.
Clang!
In a flash, its blade gently embraced the Nocturne and pulled it aside, twisting the trajectory of my attack away.
“…!”
It wasn’t brute force overpowering brute force—it was a sophisticated technique of redirecting the opponent’s momentum itself.
‘Surely not… sword technique?’
A monster wielding sword technique.
At first I thought I’d misread the situation, but that last exchange confirmed it.
There was an elegant logic woven through his blade.
He was definitely employing sword technique.
Which made sense, then.
‘I have the advantage in strength and speed.’
Yet I couldn’t break through him at all.
Not break through—I was the one being pushed back.
Every time our blades met, he gained ground, bit by bit.
Shallow wounds bloomed across my arms and legs, again and again.
My Super Regeneration sealed them shut in moments, but that nagging sense of being hunted wouldn’t ease.
‘Enduring won’t work. I need a strategy.’
The only thing I could rely on was Flame Island? No, that wouldn’t work either.
No chance this thing would let me pull that off.
The instant I was thinking exactly that, it happened.
“Light… aren’t you.”
“…?!”
Before I could wonder if I’d heard wrong, a voice thick with the ring of metal echoed again from inside the hollow helm.
“Pathetic… really.”
“So you’ve got sword technique—and you can talk too?”
A monster that could speak.
That was a first, and it caught me off guard again.
Then again, if armor can move around on its own, why not talk?
“Trusting only strength, flailing like a beast. An insult… to the blade itself.”
In all my years, I never thought I’d hear an armor call me nothing but a dumb animal with muscle.
My pride stung, but I couldn’t deny it.
Much as I hated to admit it, technically he outmatched me.
“You’re right. I’ve only been using a sword a short while. Never had any formal training.”
No training meant I was just swinging.
I did what I could—dodging when I could dodge, blocking when I could block, striking when I could strike.
That had always been enough before. Now it wasn’t.
“Okay, I get it now. I know exactly how to beat you.”
If I’m lacking something, I fill the gap.
Sword technique not my strong suit?
‘Then I’ll learn it. Right now. Right here.’
I’d steal it by watching and mimicking—his technique.
A blacksmith’s hammer blows, a laborer’s shovel work, even the way a fishmonger cuts a fish head at the market—every craft has its own rhythm.
That much I knew better than anyone.
‘Sword technique’s no different. It’s just the technology of efficiently dismantling a human body.’
There was no reason I couldn’t learn it. Not if I wanted to.
‘I can do it. If it’s me.’
That was when it started.
From defending desperately, I began tracing his Sword Path with my eyes.
The subtle lift of his shoulders.
The angle at which he planted his feet.
The twist of his wrist and the arc the blade carved through the air.
I drank it all in with my eyes and etched it into my mind.
And in the midst of it all, something peculiar shifted.
‘Something’s… different?’
Was it the effect of the Sword Saint Skill leveling up on the tenth floor?
The information flooding in exceeded what I was consciously trying to learn.
As if the resolution of my vision had sharpened.
The way his torso, held rigid, anchored a sliding footwork.
The chain of force flowing from shoulder to elbow to wrist, and how the blade’s tip received it all—details like that.
The trajectory carved by his sword point and its subtle shifts became crisp and clear.
Of course, tuition came at a price.
Receiving his attacks while simultaneously ‘learning’ made my limbs sluggish.
I ate several clean, solid hits.
A pained grunt escaped my lips.
His blade had entered my limbs and withdrawn perhaps six times over by now.
Without Super Regeneration, I would’ve collapsed from blood loss long ago.
But that struggle was far from wasted.
They say seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times, and there’s no quicker way to understand something than to receive its blows firsthand.
And so I understood.
‘…Is this a dance?’
The swordplay he displayed resembled in some peculiar way the elegant movements of a dance.
This was the moment I earned the right to belong on this stage.
‘Until now it was your solo performance, but that won’t be the case anymore.’
I stepped forward onto the stage.
‘Like this, then.’
The creature hadn’t noticed yet, but my eyes saw it clearly.
My blade, the movement of my blade, was gradually beginning to mirror his own.
And finally.
Clang!
Two blade edges clashed again in empty air, sending sparks cascading.
Within the hollow helm, a pair of flames flickered visibly.
As if taken aback.
“That Sword Form… what is…?”
“Yeah, you see it now? Seems I’m getting the hang of it. I’ve been mimicking you since a while back.”
“How… is that…?”
“I just watch and copy. That’s all.”
“Impossible…”
A monster that could speak, yet its reaction was identical to any human’s.
“Believe it or don’t. It’s something I was born with—there’s no other way for me to explain it.”
As I spoke, I brought my blade upward into a ready stance.
Spine rigid and upright, chin raised, my gaze tilted slightly downward.
The angle of my arms and legs, the height of my blade, even my breathing—all exactly as he had displayed moments before.
From the twin flames that served as his eyes, sparks erupted violently.
“How dare you… mock me… with such…!”
All his composure vanished, his agitation unmistakable now.
I smiled before him, deliberately.
“You really think it’s just imitation? You know better than anyone, don’t you?”
“…Monster!”
He lunged at me in fury, but it was useless.
My eyes already saw his next move with perfect clarity.
‘Right here…!’
Against his attack, I answered with the exact same technique.
Clang!
Our motions aligned with mirror-like precision.
Had anyone else witnessed it, they would have sworn we had rehearsed this choreographed Sword Dance in advance.
“So? Does it still look like mere imitation to you?”
Beyond our locked blades, his eyes—or rather, the pair of flames that replaced them—burned with undeniable intensity.
“It’s… still a… counterfeit!”
“A counterfeit? That’s harsh language. Let’s use something more refined instead. How about ‘master and disciple’? Doesn’t that sound better?”
Whoosh!
The hellfire burst forth, overflowing from his helm in an instant.
At nearly the same moment his blade came sweeping down, but I twisted its trajectory smoothly with the Nocturne, enfolding his blade with my own. I used the very technique he had shown me just before.
The exact same skill.
‘It works?’
A laugh escaped me.
“In that case, I humbly ask for your continued instruction, Master.”
“Shut… up!”
The battle continued unbroken.
With each clash and tangle of our blades, my sword grew closer to his with every step forward.
First the movements.
Then the breathing.
Soon, before he even extended his blade, my own was already tracing its arc.
“This… cannot… be!”
His swordplay, which had seemed so perfect until now, was beginning to waver.
His confusion traveled through the blade where it met mine.
From the start, I held the advantage in strength and speed.
Now that my swordsmanship had caught up, he had no way to endure.
Deep blade marks accumulated across his solid armor.
Victory was mine, at this rate.
‘I’m tightening the screws now.’
But he realized he couldn’t continue like this, and suddenly widened the distance.
He gathered his scattered stance and steadied his breathing.
‘This is it.’
I could sense it instinctively.
Everything would be decided in the next exchange.
‘Come on.’
Tap.
After a moment’s breath, we launched ourselves at the ground simultaneously, as if by pact.
The distance closed.
Our blades aimed for each other in mirror form.
Perfect symmetry, like two runners racing toward their reflections.
At this rate, the outcome would be mutual annihilation or a draw.
But in that instant, the red arc spreading before my eyes split in two.
‘…!’
One was the orthodox path guided by the swordsmanship I’d learned from him; the other was a third way that existed in no unnamed art.
Over the elegant sword technique he’d taught me, I layered my own “experience”—hard-won through years of bloodied struggle—into a blade that was mine alone.
‘Then naturally….’
I chose the second path without hesitation.
Because that was my way.
I Copied a Skill Just by Stepping on a Shadow
Author |
Killingpart
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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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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