I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 48

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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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48
Si Hyeon and Geom Seong sat across from each other at a table placed awkwardly alone in Bigo.
Their conversation was serene, almost unnaturally composed.
“Well now, Si Hyeon. I knew you weren’t an ordinary person, but what you showed me today exceeded my imagination entirely.”
“Ha… I suppose I was lucky.”
“If that’s something luck can accomplish, then the unlucky must live in constant disappointment.”
The atmosphere was exactly like two neighborhood friends cracking open canned beer in front of a convenience store.
Sang Sik, confronted by this surreal scene, pinched his own cheek hard.
The sting was real—this was certainly no dream.
‘What is Geom Seong doing here of all places…?’
While Sang Sik stood nearby in complete bewilderment, Snigg returned with cold water.
The goblin carried it gracefully in one hand on the same flowered brass tray that had held the soy-sauce egg rice this morning.
“Pardon the intrusion. Please, continue your conversation, both of you.”
“Of course.”
“Thanks, Snigg.”
Having fulfilled his duty, Snigg bowed with precise courtesy and withdrew.
“I’m sorry there’s so little to offer. Not even proper coffee on hand….”
“It’s fine. I have something to drink anyway.”
Geom Seong shook the cup in his hand lightly, as if to display it with pride.
Even as he did, he didn’t forget to offer a seat to Sang Sik, who stood motionless like a sack of grain left abandoned.
“Come now, Sang Sik, don’t just stand there like that—have a seat. There’s plenty of room. You don’t mind, do you, Si Hyeon?”
“Of course not. Please, Sang Sik, sit down.”
Both men smiled sweetly, as if they’d planned it, and invited him to join.
Yet Sang Sik had no desire to accept.
‘Geom Seong, well, that’s one thing, but this Kim Si Hyeon bastard… that smile is his way of saying don’t you dare sit with us.’
“No, I’m fine, really.”
“I feel like I’d be like a rolling stone trampling the grass already rooted—I apologize for intruding.”
“Not at all. Feel free to stay. I have work to do, so I’ll be going….”
With that, Sang Sik fled from the table.
He’d never been so grateful for a cleaning cloth in his hands.
Afterward, Si Hyeon and Geom Seong continued sitting side by side, conversing in low tones.
To Sang Sik, it all looked profoundly strange.
‘How on earth do these two know each other?’
The Si Hyeon that Sang Sik knew was an unidentified kidnapper, slightly unhinged.
He did provide meals and refrained from killing, so at least there was blood and tears in him.
But the fact that he was a kidnapper was undeniable.
It was impossible to like him.
Yet Shin Yoo Seong treated this man like a reliable junior or close younger brother.
Thanks to that, Sang Sik’s grand escape plan—to cry out ‘I’ve been kidnapped by this lunatic! Save me, Geom Seong!’—had come to nothing.
‘No… they do know each other, but why is their relationship so good?’
Shin Yoo Seong, South Korea’s elite champion and noble guardian, was in league with Kim Si Hyeon, the ruthless criminal who’d kidnapped and imprisoned him.
The ‘common sense’ he’d known was crumbling.
Right before his eyes, in real time.
“Well then, your throat’s been soothed… are you ready, Si Hyeon?”
“I am.”
Soon both men rose from their seats.
It was at this moment that Sang Sik gasped.
‘A sparring match? Between the two of them?’
This man not only had secret meetings with Geom Seong but received one-on-one sword instruction from him.
This was front-page newspaper material.
A white prison and a talking goblin, a winged cat, and now Geom Seong too.
Lately Sang Sik had encountered nothing but incomprehensible things, but the most incomprehensible of all was this.
‘Kim Si Hyeon—what the hell is this bastard’s true identity?’
* * *
The sparring match with Geom Seong was finally happening.
Before inviting the Master to Bigo, I’d hesitated slightly.
Was it truly the right call to invite such a monster to Bigo, the Top’s interior training ground?
‘If he wanted, he could dispose of someone like me in a single second.’
But I’d reached the realistic conclusion that such a possibility was extremely unlikely.
The only person who knows I’m Poongyojwa is the Master, and he’s kept me alive until now.
If he wanted to dispose of me, he could have done it quietly, without a trace, made it look like an accident long ago.
‘He already has my life in his hands. Will showing a bit more of my cards here suddenly make him have second thoughts?’
Up to this point, it’s just an excuse for having brought a human weapon into my home.
Truth is, more than any of those reasons, I didn’t want to miss this chance for a one-on-one private lesson with Geom Seong.
It’s not something you could buy, even with a fortune.
‘There’s no way to calculate its value. Money won’t move a man like him.’
Before the sparring match, we each warmed up lightly, and once the teacher finished his preparations, he pulled something from his Inventory with a flourish.
“You usually use a real sword, Si Hyeon. I’ll… go with this.”
He carried a sword at his waist already, but when I saw what he was pulling out, a Jukdo appeared instead.
‘He’s going to face my real blade with a wooden sword?’
For a moment I was about to ask if that was right, but the thought struck me as so absurd I couldn’t help laughing.
‘Who’s worried about whom, exactly.’
If that man decided to, he could split me clean in half with something as trivial as that.
As if reading that very thought, the teacher added a word.
“Ah, you needn’t worry. So don’t hold back—come at me with everything you have.”
Then, slowly, he gripped the Jukdo with both hands and took his stance.
It was the ordinary Gisusik that people usually picture when they think of kendo.
But the result was anything but ordinary.
‘Wow—what kind of person is leaking that much Ki/Aura?’
Like a razor-sharp blade, his Ki/Aura streamed out in rippling waves.
Just facing it felt like I’d be cut, and I swallowed hard.
‘Geom Seong with a sword in hand… is different.’
Soon I finished my own preparations, and the teacher yielded the first move.
“Once you’re ready, come ahead.”
“Then I won’t be shy… here I go.”
Tap—!
I immediately kicked off the white marble of Bigo and closed the distance.
While not comparable to Geom Seong, I too transcend human limits within the tower’s interior.
I covered the ground in the blink of an eye.
‘Now!’
Aiming for the opponent’s head within striking range, I unleashed the frost-white blade of Ya Sang Gok in a sharp thrust.
Shriek—!
A clean, rushing thrust.
Even I could see it was a threatening strike.
The problem came after.
‘Huh?’
The opponent’s reaction was far too slow.
He stared at just the tip of my blade for a moment, then the Jukdo moved—slowly, leisurely, at a glacial pace.
In that instant, I panicked and forced myself to twist the blade away.
‘…Hah!’
I couldn’t let a hero of national salvation end up like a split watermelon.
But the result was far different from what I’d feared.
Crack!
“…?!”
The black blade of Ya Sang Gok was blocked by the Jukdo, held at an angle.
Beyond the crossed blades, I saw the teacher’s smile.
“…Didn’t I tell you? Don’t worry about me.”
Something sent ice down my spine.
The texture of his smile was different from usual.
‘…Could he be upset that I underestimated him?’
That “could be” turned out to be exactly right.
“Then… let me show you. Just who you’re facing right now.”
This man was definitely angry.
And with that, he thrust the crossed blade away and drew the Jukdo in a single sweeping motion, the teacher moving.
It was another attack that appeared deceptively slow, just like before.
‘This much I can…!’
I immediately tracked its trajectory at full speed.
But just before the two blades met, the Jukdo twisted with subtle, uncanny precision.
Ya Sang Gok, which had only been following that arc, cut through empty air instead.
“…!”
And the tip of the Jukdo came to rest gently against my ribs.
That was the end of it.
Had this been a real blade, my side would have been torn open.
Facing such overwhelming disparity in strength, a hollow laugh escaped me.
“Ha… I suppose my worry was unfounded.”
“I understand. It’s not easy to wield a live blade against another person carelessly.”
“My apologies. I’ll gather myself and come at you properly. With everything I have.”
“Yes. Come at me with everything.”
The subsequent exchanges unfolded much the same way.
‘Even though he moves so slowly… how?’
No matter how hard I pressed my best attacks, I couldn’t seem to break through that languid defense.
Geom Seong’s Jukdo moved irritatingly late, yet always arrived first.
As if he’d read my attack’s trajectory and was already waiting.
‘I can’t win. No—I can’t even land a blow.’
My movements were flawless, I was certain of it.
My stance held no flaw; my speed had been drawn up to the very limit I could achieve.
I didn’t hesitate or waver, not after the beating I’d just taken.
I swung with the intent to kill, and yet I couldn’t make him take a single step back.
Not even despair touched me.
There was no reason to despair that a man cannot fell a mountain.
That was exactly how I felt now.
A mere confirmation that ‘of course this is how it should be.’
Just then, Geom Seong lowered his Jukdo.
“I think I’ve seen enough.”
“I’ve learned a great deal.”
He then tapped his own shoulder with the Jukdo in a massaging motion and continued.
“Well… based on that last exchange, I have some feedback: your swordwork right now, Si Hyeon, is bound. Bound by the Orthodox form.”
“Bound by the Orthodox form?”
“Yes. Those who don’t know the sword use their arms; those who know the sword use their body. And you—you use your body exceptionally well. So well, in fact, that it’s the problem.”
“…What do you mean, so well that it’s a problem?”
“Right now your swordwork follows nothing but the Orthodox form. As if someone beside you were drawing the optimal path. It’s not a bad thing, really. After all, following the path of truth is the shortest route.”
Truth be told, the Geom Seong skill was doing exactly that for me.
Though Geom Seong would understand that better than I would.
“But because of that, I can see every move you’ll make next. Far too ‘correct.'”
Predictable because it is Orthodox.
This was unexpected.
I’d thought no one surpassed me in Unexpectedness, yet somewhere along the way a skill had leashed that quality tight.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll show you right now. What movements become possible when you abandon the Orthodox form.”
“Please do.”
After giving me a moment to prepare, Geom Seong moved to attack for the first time.
Whoosh!
His Jukdo thrust upward at my heart.
In that instant, the optimal counter-path materialized in my mind.
A half-step back to the left, blade angled diagonal to deflect it.
My body began to execute that path with perfect precision.
‘…What?’
In a flash, the blade that had been aimed at my chest twisted along an entirely unexpected trajectory toward my neck.
Instead of his full weight behind one honest blow, he’d twisted his wrist alone—weak hand, twisted arm—to change the path.
“Ugh—!”
The perfect answer to the heart strike became a perfect non-answer in an instant.
‘I can’t block it…!’
With no way to defend, I stumbled backward.
But he was Geom Seong.
With a light step, the blunt edge of his Jukdo pressed firmly into my left chest.
“…That’s how it works. You felt it—that’s not the Orthodox form. It’s inefficient and strains the arm. It’s what we call the Bad hand. But when used well, even the Bad hand cuts deep, doesn’t it?”
“…Yes, now that I’ve felt it, I understand immediately.”
Geom Seong smiled slightly.
“You’re already excellent. You’re doing very well. To reach the early levels of the tenth floor—I couldn’t have managed that at this stage. But… you can do better. If you’re Si Hyeon, you can.”
His voice carried the same warmth I knew in my teacher, but his eyes remained sharp as blades.
“Once you’ve perfected the Orthodox form, it’s time to shatter it. Even if your skill shows you a well-worn path, sometimes you must step off it. That’s when true Unexpectedness takes root in your sword.”
I think I have a rough idea of what needs to be done.
“Master, would it be alright to ask for another round?”
“Not at all.”
“Oh, I’m really sorry for taking up so much of your time when you’re so busy—”
Geom Seong answered with a playful smile.
“One round isn’t enough. Now that I’m finally getting warmed up. Don’t you think?”
We both laughed.
“Ah, was that what you meant?”
“Of course. Things were just getting interesting—I couldn’t possibly stop now. Shall we begin?”
“Yes, thank you for this opportunity.”
Geom Seong’s Jukdo leveled at me once more.
I raised the Ya Sang Gok to meet it.
From a different angle than before.
Chin slightly lifted, spine perfectly straight.
The Ya Sang Gok held parallel to the ground, facing Geom Seong squarely.
Until now, it had all been fundamentals.
Now it was time to try the Cardia Swordsmanship.
“This time, I’ll bring out something new.”
Just stepped on the shadow and the skill copied right away
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Killing Part
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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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