I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 42

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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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42
Front, back, left, right—nothing but pristine white space. The King’s Secret Place.
Sang-sik still remained the only living creature here, though more furnishings than before had accumulated.
An old kettle, a chamber pot, and even a low dining table.
All of it brought by Si-hyeon after the grilled pork belly feast.
The lukewarm barley tea in the kettle was his only lifeline, and the chamber pot sitting forlornly in one corner of the Secret Place preserved at least a shred of dignity.
With Si-hyeon coming by regularly to bring him food, the matter of survival was solved.
But the real problem was the suffocating boredom.
All Sang-sik could do in this white space alone was stare blankly into nothing.
“Ugh… I’m dying of boredom. I’m going to lose my mind, seriously. Now I get why everyone in movies hates solitary confinement.”
Sang-sik found himself unexpectedly answering a question he’d always wondered—why prisoners complained so much about being moved to isolation when it seemed like it should be peaceful.
If he kept sitting still like this, he felt certain he’d develop an illness that didn’t exist before.
“Sigh. I should do something. Right, Si-hyeon said this place is a tower, so if I train here, couldn’t I become an Awakener too?”
With that thought, Sang-sik threw a punch at the wall, like a movie protagonist he once saw vowing revenge while eating dumplings.
Thud!
Of course, the outcome was predetermined.
“Aah! My hand!”
After clutching his hand and cursing for a while, Sang-sik gave up on punching the wall and began throwing jabs into thin air instead.
“Just wait, Si-hyeon. The moment I get out of here, I’m going to separate your bones from your flesh! Whoosh, whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!”
This was how Sang-sik was fighting his boredom.
A deep hum—
As always, the entrance portal shimmered with that familiar hum. A visitor.
“…They’re here!”
Stepping through was Snig, the goblin Sang-sik had grown quite familiar with by now, holding an aluminum pot in his hand.
“Snig!”
“Hear me, wretched creature! Your magnificent and benevolent master, taking pity upon your starving belly, has graciously bestowed upon you this celestial feast!”
Snig’s grand speech began, right on cue.
“This food, I must say, is the culmination of cooking perfected by great scholars who dedicated their entire lives to culinary research—be warned lest you lose your senses to its overwhelming aroma and taste!”
“Is… is it truly so fine?”
Curious as to what could possibly warrant such fanfare, Sang-sik swallowed hard and carefully lifted the pot lid.
Steaming ramen in vivid crimson greeted him.
“This is just… ramen?”
He couldn’t believe Snig was making such a production out of nothing but instant noodles.
Ridiculous as it was, his mouth watered at the sharp, spicy aroma wafting toward him.
‘Right, now’s not the time to be picky about hot or cold. Where am I, anyway? But wait—is that a soft-boiled egg on top of the ramen broth?’
It was a bizarre food pairing he’d never encountered before.
It hit him with the same shock as watching someone cut and eat pizza with a fork and knife.
‘That one’s definitely not in his right mind. Even though he can speak, I need to be careful.’
That one—you never knew what he’d do.
This goblin in front of him, by comparison, was easy to read.
“How dare you call it mere ramen! Such sustenance is wasted on you! Eat it with gratitude in your heart!”
“Ah, yes, yes. Thank you. I’ll eat well.”
With this one, flattery made everything right.
Sure enough, Snig’s expression softened immediately.
“Oh, and the master bade me give you this as well! Accept it.”
“Oh… a book! A book!”
Had Sang-sik ever felt such joy at the sight of a book in his entire life?
He quickly took it and examined it.

A cross symbol and the title emblazoned in large letters.
A religious pamphlet—what people commonly called missionary literature.
‘What the hell is this? Is he telling me to use it as a pot holder?’
Sang-sik, deflated, answered curtly.
“Ah, yes, yes. I’ll put it to good use.”
“Good. Clean up well after you finish eating.”
“Yep, take care going back, Snig.”
As Snig headed back up to the rooftop, the empty Secret Place was left to Sang-sik alone once more.
“Tch. It was better when he’d stay and share a meal. At least I had something interesting to look at then.”
Grumbling, Sang-sik settled at the table and began to eat.
Slurp, smack.
The ramen with a fried egg stirred into the broth—hunger as seasoning, as they say—turned out better than he’d expected.
“…This actually works. Maybe it’s just good mixed with good.”
As the meal wound down, boredom crept in where hunger had been.
“……There’s really nothing to do.”
Sang-sik’s eyes drifted from the bowl to the pot holder as he sipped the last of the broth.
‘Maybe I should read this…?’
A book. As if Sang-sik would ever.
A religious pamphlet, no less.
Ordinarily unthinkable—but these weren’t ordinary circumstances.
‘All right, what else am I doing here. Might as well kill some time with this.’
Sang-sik reached over and picked up the pamphlet he’d been using as a pot holder.
The cover had wrinkled a little from the heat, but it was still readable.
And so his reading began.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d held a book.
“Let’s see what nonsense they’ve written. What? ‘Sinners, repent…?’ Tch. These pamphlets always start off on the wrong foot.”
But his eyes never left the page.
* * *
— Oh my, boss, I’m so sorry. This job’s turned out to be quite tricky. I hate to ask, but could you give us a few more days?
The voice of the Detective Agency owner crackled through the receiver.
He couldn’t very well tell his client that the operative had abandoned the case and vanished, so he’d offered a clumsy excuse instead.
Yet the anonymous contractor on the other end seemed unbothered.
“Yes, well, these things happen. That’s fine. Take your time.”
— Oh, thank you. I’ll contact you as soon as I can.
“What’s so difficult about catching one little rat? I know your abilities perfectly well, boss. If it’s taking this long, there must be a good reason. Really, don’t worry about it.”
— My goodness, thank you so much. I promise to be in touch very soon.
“Yes, just let me know when you’ve made some progress. I’ll be waiting.”
— Yes, then. I’ll hang up now.
Lee Do-hyeon finished the hushed call and made his way back to the office.
“Ah, team leader. Sneaking off for another cigarette alone? Why didn’t you ask any of us to join you?”
“Never mind that. Do I need an entourage just to smoke? This isn’t a kindergarten outing.”
He brushed off his subordinate’s joking and headed straight back to his desk.
On the monitor he’d abandoned just before stepping out for his smoke break, an Awakener’s profile remained open.
[Awakener Profile]
Name: Si-hyeon Kim
Skill: Healing Touch (C−)
Highest Floor Reached: Floor 3
Remarks: Returnee from Tower Forced Summoning Incident
‘Only Floor 3.’
Some nobody who’d kept nagging at him.
A background check request had come in, so he’d thought there might be something special about the guy—but it turned out he was nothing but a junior who’d barely scraped past the third floor.
‘Maybe I was overthinking it.’
A bitter laugh leaked out at his own foolishness, having suspected this nobody of being a VVIP.
‘But someone’s dropping a hundred million on this kid… Some personal grudge maybe. A love triangle?’
That was probably it. It happened often enough.
People who met as teammates, climbed the Tower together, locked eyes—then fell into forbidden love.
‘What kind of grudge is a guy who’s barely climbed three floors going to carry? There’s nothing else it could be.’
This wasn’t the first background check request that had come in for such reasons.
Half the salary workers out there got stuck on Floor 3.
The third-rate romance that bloomed in that pathetic excuse for a tower was predictable enough.
‘Get a little help once and suddenly they’re acting like they’ve been saved by a lifesaver, using it as an excuse to grab a meal together, form a fixed party, climb the Tower as one—’
By that point, the Tower stops being the Tower for them.
Might as well be a water mill.
‘These people are something else. Too busy with work to handle anything else, and now they’ve got to squeeze in love too. Remarkable. The kid’s barely been an Awakener and already playing with fire? When do these people find the time?’
For those whose instinct outpaced reason, who crossed lines they shouldn’t—time was never an issue.
Heat made the body act fast. That was the nature of recklessness.
‘…The kid’s face isn’t bad, I’ll give him that. Maybe that’s the secret?’
Of course, that little dalliance ended here.
The kid had picked the wrong person, clearly.
‘Tch tch. You should know your opponent before you make a move.’
Si-hyeon wasn’t worth another moment of Lee Do-hyeon’s attention.
Just wait silently and pick up whatever money falls to the floor. Simple as that.
‘There really are people in this world who don’t know what to do with money. Well, I’m making easy cash, so I can’t complain.’
Lee Do-hyeon let out a quiet chuckle and flashed a smile, then jumped to his feet.
“Ah, I can’t take it. Need another smoke before I lose my mind. Hey, anyone want to join me for a cigarette?”
“Oh! I was just about to head out! Let’s go together! Team leader!”
“You punk, you come to work and do nothing but smoke all day. You’re taking half pay. Got it?”
“But sir, you just got back from doing the same thing.”
“Am I the same as you? Am I? You lot can’t even get close to the VVIP’s shadow—you’re always getting chewed out by the director. Don’t you sigh? I sigh. What comes out of my mouth isn’t smoke, it’s a sigh, you bastard.”
“We’re working hard too, sir. But nothing’s coming up.”
“You dare talk back? Get out of here. You’re done for today.”
Though Lee Do-hyeon had no real intention of hitting anyone, he made a show of it anyway—and his subordinate, well-rehearsed in this routine, scurried away without missing a beat.
As Lee Do-hyeon stepped out of the office, a bitter laugh tugged at the corner of his mouth.
‘Thought I had it figured out. But no—where the hell are you hiding, Poongyeo-jwa? And you’ve hidden yourself so damn well.’
Just when he thought he’d caught a thread, Poongyeo-jwa slipped back into the shadows.
While Lee Do-hyeon stood outside chain-smoking his frustration away, the owner of the Detective Agency—who’d hung up with him just moments before—was burning with the same impatience.
“Damn it, Sang-sik! This bastard just vanished in the middle of work without a word!”
* * *
The sun hung high overhead, but the dense canopy of the forest kept the interior dark.
A lone goblin wandered the forest path.
“Ugh… I’m so hungry.”
Skeletal frame, tottering steps.
It was Ro-ga, the one Si-hyeon had saved.
After Ashkatal vanished into light, Ro-ga and the other goblins had sought out a nearby Goblin Settlement.
They hadn’t expected a grand welcome.
They’d only hoped for a corner to rest in during these hard times, a temporary refuge for a lost kinsman.
But what greeted Ro-ga was cold contempt, fury, and a hail of stones.
― How dare you show your face here, you wretch! Wasn’t it enough that your brother sold out our own kind? Now you’ve come to hand over our last hiding place?!
His brother—Ga-rok—had betrayed their people?
It was the first Ro-ga had heard of such a thing.
He found it completely unbelievable.
Of course, he lacked the courage to stand and fight back, insisting, ‘That can’t be! My brother would never! It must be a misunderstanding!’
So instead he simply slipped away quietly, thinking that somehow this misunderstanding would be cleared up in time, and that he just needed to survive until then.
― Ro-ga… I’m sorry.
― It’s okay. The misunderstanding will clear up soon enough! I just need to stay alive until then. I made it through worse—the snake-men, remember?
The four companions who had crossed the threshold of death with him turned their eyes away, sympathy flickering in their gaze, but they bowed before the clan chief’s outburst.
They were afraid they’d be cast out too.
Ro-ga bore them no resentment.
Had their positions been reversed, he would have made the same choice.
‘Not just one or two, but the whole settlement saying the same thing… Could it really be true? Could my brother have…?’
The thought of his brother weighed heavy on his steps.
Ro-ga trudged forward, then abruptly shook his head hard.
‘No, that’s impossible! My brother would never do such a thing.’
This was the brother who had looked after him carefully despite the mockery he endured as a coward, the one who protected him.
Not only that, the younger ones had always trailed after Ga-rok’s heels, and even the difficult adults praised him as a pillar of the tribe.
A strong Green Breath warrior selling out his own kind?
It was utterly preposterous.
“Whoever started this rumor… if I ever find out who…”
Though knowing Ro-ga’s nature, he probably wouldn’t know what to do if the moment actually came, his fist still clenched with determination.
That burning resolve faded quickly, though—exhaustion and hunger caught hold of his ankles.
“Sigh… my legs hurt.”
He leaned against an old tree trunk to rest for a moment.
Grrrrrowwwwl—!
A low growl that sent ice down his spine.
‘…! It’s close!’
Ro-ga immediately buried himself in the undergrowth.
After a few rustling sounds, a massive feline predator came into view.
One of the forest’s apex hunters—creatures that even those ‘long ones’ feared as prey.
Sniff-sniff!
It narrowed the distance slowly, nostrils flaring.
‘Please… please just keep going.’
Yet as if mocking Ro-ga’s desperate wish, the beast closed the distance with deliberate, methodical steps.
‘Discovered! It already knows.’
Snarl!
True to his fears, the beast charged with a roar.
Ro-ga burst from the brush almost in the same instant.
“Yelp!”
Had he hesitated even a heartbeat longer, he would have been devoured.
From that moment, a deadly chase began between Ro-ga and the beast.
“Huff, huff!”
His short legs pumped frantically, yet it was no match.
Ro-ga was caught with embarrassing ease—barely worthy of being called a chase—and the creature seized its chance, unhinged its jaws, and lunged.
Snarl!
Death came with the glint of needle-sharp fangs.
‘So this is how I die.’
As he squeezed his eyes shut, the first thing that came to mind was a reassuring green silhouette.
‘Brother…….’
— A filthy traitor who sold out his own kind!
In that instant, a sharp rebuke echoed at the edge of his hearing, and the illusion shattered like mist.
In the pitch darkness with nothing to cling to, Ro-ga whispered without thinking.
“Ashkatal…….”
Crack—!
A sickening sound of bone and flesh split clean through.
Yet the pain he’d braced for never came.
“…?”
Ro-ga opened his eyes in confusion, and was greeted by the slack-jawed maw of the beast.
A black blade pierced through its skull, its tongue lolling out.
“…Hah!”
The dark steel that had driven through the creature’s brow stopped mere inches from Ro-ga’s face.
In any other moment, he would have shrieked and lost consciousness.
But now was different.
“…This is—!”
He knew the meaning of that Black Sword, knew exactly whose hand wielded it.
“Ashkatal!”
In the next breath, the beast’s strength gave way, and it crumpled. Behind it stood a familiar silhouette.
“This bastard. I go to all the trouble of keeping him alive, and here he is doing this again.”
A wry smile crossed his face as he drew the Black Sword free with a soft scrape.
Long-limbed, yet not fearsome to look upon.
Ashkatal—or rather, Si-hyeon—had arrived.
“Where’d your friends all go, huh? Why are you playing around here alone?”
Though his words were incomprehensible, Ro-ga understood from the cool, indifferent gaze looking down at him.
That the gods had not yet abandoned him, or the Green Breath.
I Copied the Skill by Just Stepping on the Shadow
Author |
Killing Part
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(주) Samyang C&C
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Editorial Department
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(주) Samyang C&C – Without written permission from Dream Books, this book’s contents may not be used in any form or by any means.

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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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