I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 35

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

35
From what I’d observed over the past few hours, Snig proved quite useful.
“Dust! Remove! Hair! Annihilate!”
When I’d set him to cleaning, he’d somehow found the Broom and Dustpan that had been gathering dust in the corner, then swept through the entire room without missing a speck, his diligence unrelenting.
Though the Broom and Dustpan I knew would be different in material and shape, his ability to grasp their purpose at a glance was remarkable.
“You’ve got work sense. Good—you’ve mastered ‘sweeping’ now, so let’s try ‘wiping’ next.”
After I explained the Cloth, its purpose, and how to use it, he polished the floor until it gleamed.
“Not bad at all. When they said ‘storage keeper,’ I wondered if you’d actually be good for anything.”
“Hehe, the most important thing in maintaining Bigo is cleanliness, isn’t it? This much is basic! Just leave anything to me!”
He seemed reliable enough to earn his keep.
“Good, cleaning passes. Come here—I’ll show you how to use the Gas Range.”
“The Gas… Range?”
The moment I called him over, a chill ran down my spine.
‘Wait. Is it really wise to trust him with gas?’
The rooftop had Mage Engineering, so something like a Gas Range existed there too, but Snig was a goblin.
‘Has he ever used one before?’
No. He couldn’t have.
Even if I explained the Gas Range perfectly, if he made even one mistake…!
‘Boom.’
My little sanctuary could go up in flames.
I’d nearly made a serious error.
A Gas Range was premature for someone still ignorant of modern civilization.
“…No, cancel that. Stay away from the kitchen. It’s dangerous.”
“Eh? Dangerous? You can trust me completely. Didn’t you just see how I figured out the Water Tap right away?”
“Quiet. Go sit over there and stay put. I’ll handle it after I shower.”
I kept him well away from the Gas Range and headed to the bathroom.
Snig let out a disappointed sigh—’Hmm, I could do it. If only you trusted me’—but safety came first for now.
A short while later, as I emerged from the shower,
“Ah, that’s refreshing.”
Usually I’d head out after breakfast and be back by lunch at the latest, but today had been busy—I was running late.
So first priority: fill my stomach fast.
Today’s late lunch would be Ramen.
“Get the water going… should I boil two packages or three? Hmm, I wonder if he can’t eat spicy things?”
The moment I glanced toward the Gas Range, I saw Snig standing directly in front of it, blocking my view.
Something about the scene felt deeply ominous.
“…Hey, what are you doing over there?”
“…M-master.”
His voice trembled, his expression like someone caught red-handed in mischief.
His face had gone pale with fear.
I had a bad feeling about this.
So much for seeming obedient—he’d caused trouble after all.
Wondering what on earth had happened, I draped the towel around my neck and stepped up beside him.
“What were you doing? You look like a dog desperate to go outside.”
“I-I’m sorry! I was trying to light the stove to spare you the effort! But—! Agh! Bad Snig! Worthless Snig! Snig must be punished!”
Mid-sentence, he suddenly bolted toward the wall headfirst.
He’d done this once back at Bigo, and here he was again.
“Whoa, whoa. Self-harm confessions won’t cut it. Speak. Just speak.”
Slap!
I grabbed his gleaming, smooth head like a basketball and held him back, then got the full story.
“Alright, so you tried to light the stove. Then what?”
Snig’s finger pointed at the Gas Range.
“This iron box—no, this magical device is acting strange!”
“The Gas Range.”
“I thought if I turned the handle like I did with the Water Tap, it would work, so I turned it, but instead of flame, I only heard ‘tick, tick, tick.’ I’m afraid I broke it….”
“It’s Water Tap, not ‘water something.’ Water Tap.”
I could piece together what had happened.
‘He didn’t know what the gas valve was, so he just touched the Gas Range itself.’
The ignition switch had been turned all the way, but thankfully the gas valve remained locked.
‘This is why people are supposed to keep the valve closed as a habit.’
Accidents always arrive in ways you never expect.
I’d resigned myself to dying inside the Tower before my time came, but never did I imagine I’d almost perish to goblins outside it.
In any case, habit saved me from disaster.
Somehow he’d managed to find a Pot, and he’d even filled it with water properly.
Though it was from the Han River, admittedly.
‘Looks like he actually learned how to use the Water Tap.’
I was mulling over what to do with it when Snig started making a fuss.
“Th-that sound…! That’s definitely a sign of mana runaway! It’s about to explode! You need to get away quickly…!”
Seeing him block my way with such genuine concern for my safety was exasperating.
What good did it do to block me?
The pint-sized creature only came up to my waist.
“Move.”
“It’s dangerous! Master!”
“I said move. It’s not going to explode.”
I brushed Snig to the side and took over the Gas Range myself.
Click-click-click! Whoosh!
A cheerful sound, and above the burner bloomed a sharp blue flame.
In response, Snig shrieked and flattened himself against the floor.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
“…What are you doing?”
A moment later, he cautiously lifted his head and examined the flame from the Gas Range.
“A, a blue flame…! To conjure fire from thin air without kindling or flint…!”
He gazed up at me with eyes full of reverence.
“You truly are, Master…! A mage of Flame Magic! This Snig is overcome with admiration once more! That flame we saw in Bigo as well must surely have been…!”
“A mage? It’s City Gas, you fool.”
“City Gas… City Gas. I shall remember the name of this great incantation!”
“Sigh.”
Watching this absurd pantomime, I felt just how vast the road ahead truly was.
‘He’s got sense, but he has zero understanding of modern technology. Where do I even start teaching him?’
But I couldn’t do everything myself.
Why would I keep him around if I did?
He had to pull his own weight.
Our Bami, though—that’s a different story.
His mere existence is healing.
“All right, that’s enough. Stay and watch from there. Call me when the water boils. I’ll be drying my hair in the meantime.”
“Yes! This Snig shall guard the blue flame you’ve conjured, Master, even at the cost of my life!”
Such solemnity just to boil water for Ramen.
“Cut it out. Just watch if the water boils. That’s all. You’ll cause an accident otherwise. Oh, and Snig—you’re on One Strike. Be careful.”
I meant it as a warning to behave lest he get locked away in that psychiatric ward hellhole called Bigo, but the answer that came back was unexpected.
“One Strike… What is that, sir?”
Oh right.
He’d have no way of knowing baseball.
“It means be careful. Okay?”
“Careful. I understand. But… okay? What is that?”
“…What?”
It wasn’t a baseball problem.
He understood Korean fine—it was the foreign loanwords he couldn’t grasp.
“Sigh.”
Even the System was too much.
If it’s going to make Korean work, it could’ve used a little more flexibility with the loanwords.
There are so many foreign words we use as-is.
‘No, wait. The fact that we can communicate at all is already a blessing. At least he’s not calling things “kerruk” or “keruk.”‘
Right, I need to be grateful.
I should embrace the Korean language.
I’m Korean, after all.
* * *
A large dining table, incongruous in the cramped one-room apartment.
Around it sat three… beings, with an aluminum Pot placed on top.
“Voilà.”
As I lifted the lid, perfectly cooked Ramen released plumes of steam.
“M, Master. What in the world is this red noodle dish? The smell is… quite intense.”
Unable to tear his gaze from that appetizing form, Snig swallowed hard.
A mischievous impulse stirred in me.
“Ah, this is what is called ‘Ramen.'”
“Ra… men…?”
“Indeed. It is the ultimate dish—the fruit of scholars devoted entirely to the study of delicious cuisine, pooling their wisdom together.”
“Oh! It is an honor merely to receive sustenance from those noble hands, yet you bestow upon me such a precious dish…!”
Snig’s eyes gleamed as he gazed up at me, visibly moved.
“A ruler worthy of the name must know how to give as well. In any case, you are now part of our Rooftop Room Family me—.”
Ugh, avoiding foreign words is harder than I thought.
“Rather, we are one household now. You might say this is a welcome ceremony. Consider it an honor.”
“Your grace is beyond measure, my lord! I shall carve this kindness into my very bones!”
I tried to suppress the smile creeping across my face, then scooped a generous portion of noodles onto his plate.
“The broth is quite spicy—you probably won’t be able to stomach it. Try it as is for now. Be careful, it’s hot.”
He carefully wound the steaming noodles around his fork, blew on them to cool them, then brought them gingerly to his mouth.
Slurp!
“…Gulp!”
The noodles disappeared into his mouth in one swift pull, and his eyes snapped wide open.
‘Are his eyes about to pop right out of his head?’
Goblins already had eyes that were halfway out of their sockets to begin with, and at this wide-eyed stare, I was half-convinced they’d spill onto his plate.
“How is it? Edible?”
Rooftop dweller.
How does the taste of the modern age sit with you?
“My tongue dances! Salty yet piquant, followed by a savory deliciousness that rushes like a storm—truly, a heavenly flavor befitting the ultimate dish! Even Lord Goldarac could never have tasted something of this caliber!”
“I’m glad it suits your palate. Eat as much as you like. I made three bowls.”
“Thank you, my lord!”
“Go on, eat up.”
He promptly threw aside all pretense and buried his face in the plate, slurping the noodles down with gusto.
I’d been worried about how to manage this troublemaker, but apparently a single bowl of ramen was all it took to send him into raptures.
‘He communicates well, has work sense… if he’s trained properly, he might even earn his keep.’
I began eating as well.
Ramen after labor—there’s nothing like it.
Once I drained the broth, all my exhaustion seemed to melt away.
“Ahhh… that’s the stuff. Haven’t even touched alcohol and I already feel refreshed.”
Tap, tap.
Then I felt a soft, tickling sensation on the top of my foot.
Looking down, Bami was staring up at me with her purple eyes round and wide.
Her tilted head seemed to ask, ‘What about me?’
Good grief, where was my head?
I couldn’t forget about our Bami.
“That’s right, that’s right. Let’s get you a snack too. You did good work today.”
I immediately pulled out a Chuul and squeezed it into Bami’s treat bowl.
“Meow!”
Only then did she wag her tail and dive into her meal.
A slurping goblin and a munching cat.
A small laugh escaped me.
‘Well, this isn’t so bad.’
At least this lively table was better than eating alone in silence—
“Gaaah! Spicy! It burns! My tongue is on fire! My lord! Water! No, give me an antidote!”
And so his rapture crumbled in an instant.
“Sigh… I thought he was eating well without complaining, and now this. Here, water.”
I heaved a long sigh and poured water into a cup, but in his thrashing, he struck my arm with a ‘whack.’
Splash!
I caught it quickly enough to keep the cup from breaking.
But I couldn’t avoid becoming a drowned rat in the process.
“S-sorry, my lord…!”
……
Crack.
Something inside me snapped in that moment.
A spoon glinted in my hand.
Before I could think, my hand moved first, delivering a satisfying smack to that smooth, green head.
Snap!
“Ow!”
“Eat it properly, you punk!”
I just stepped on a shadow and the skill copied itself instantly
Author |
Killing Part
Publisher |
(주) Samyang C&C
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
Published by |
(주) Samyang C&C — Dream Books
Address |
7F Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703072
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter (X) |
@dreambookss
Submissions |
[email protected]
The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of (주) Samyang C&C — Dream Books.

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