I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 53

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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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53
Another day dawned, and I returned to the tower.
I’d reached Floor 15 by now.
The basic quest was nothing special—the same monotonous monster slaying in the Swamp, repeated endlessly.
The real challenge began once I entered the Trial.
Rain began to fall softly across the Swamp.
“So after the heat, we get this.”
Not heavy enough to call a downpour, yet unpleasant to be caught in all the same.
“I’m already tempted to quit.”
I muttered while watching raindrops fall onto my palm, and Roga answered by shaking his body vigorously, scattering the water from his fur.
“Keruk.”
Whatever he’d said, he clearly didn’t enjoy the rain any more than I did.
“Right then. Let’s find this bird and head back—a nice hot broth sounds perfect.”
“Keruk!”
He answered as though he’d understood every word, even though we both knew he hadn’t.
This Trial’s Quest Objective was ‘Rescue the Sun Bird’—exactly as I’d anticipated yesterday.
“The real question is: where’s the bird?”
Time for Roga to earn his keep.
I pulled out one of the Sun Bird’s feathers and handed it to him. The scent should still linger.
“Roga, find where this bird is. Can you do that?”
“Keruk!”
Language was no barrier when it came to this—he understood instantly.
Roga caught the feather’s scent, then took the lead down the path.
‘Though today might be rougher for him than usual…’
The rain had already begun washing away footprints. The scents would suffer the same fate.
Perhaps that’s why Roga lowered himself this time, moving with unusual caution.
He crouched low, nearly crawling along the ground.
With his nose nearly brushing the mud, he swept methodically through the grass and soft earth.
‘What exactly is he tracking?’
I followed silently, watching closely, and only then did the clues reveal themselves.
‘Ah, the grass has been bent down.’
The rain had blurred the traces, but not erased them entirely.
While single passages fade with a rainfall or two, paths worn daily endure.
The ground beneath a frequently traveled route becomes more compacted with time.
Grass roots bend in one direction; the depth of pooling water shifts subtly.
‘I really did pick up a good guide. Though that translator is still temperamental.’
Roga—when I saw him work like this, it was clear he’d spent a long time in the Great Forest.
After walking for some time, Roga stopped abruptly.
“Keruk!”
We were almost there, apparently.
“This way?”
He nodded at the direction I’d pointed.
I advanced cautiously, and soon the texture of the ground changed beneath my feet.
This wasn’t merely Swamp.
A shallow channel of water ran through the mud in a clearly deliberate pattern.
“Who dug this?”
The watercourse was far too precise.
Someone had excavated the mud and wedged stones along both edges to prevent collapse—the unmistakable work of artificial engineering.
“Quite the construction project, I’d say.”
I followed the channel silently, and before long, a stone structure emerged in the distance.
There was no mystery about what it was; a single glance told me everything.
‘An Altar? What are they planning to do with something like that?’
I crouched low and crept forward through the grass cover, moving with extreme care.
The distant Altar drew closer, until it loomed directly before me.
‘So that’s why they dug the channel… it was for this.’
Strangely, the Altar was half-submerged in water—water drawn from all directions by artificial channels.
A few Lizardmen stood guard beside it, while flames rose up fiercely upon its surface.
I peered closer, wondering if these sinister Lizardmen were performing human sacrifice—
‘Wait. It’s all stone.’
Only a greenish-blue stone was burning in those flames.
I thought I’d glimpsed something like it once in those mines where goblins were enslaved as workers.
‘Coal, maybe?’
The thought had barely formed when it happened.
Squeak-squeak-squeak.
The sound of wheels echoing from somewhere.
Across the channel, four lizardmen were straining to drag something toward us.
‘…An Iron Cage?’
A massive wheeled Iron Cage.
Inside it, a single bird crouched huddled.
Reddish-gold plumage and an enormous body.
The mythical creature that stops the rain. The Sun Bird.
‘I really did find it.’
Caged and cowering like that was a pitiful sight, but it certainly looked worthy of legend.
‘It’s actually massive.’
But that was all.
Right now it was a parrot in an Iron Cage. No—worse than that.
‘A pet bird would have a better lot than this.’
Wet feathers plastered to its body, trembling violently.
It wasn’t without reason that it was the Trial objective—it clearly needed rescuing.
‘The enemies number about ten, maybe.’
The original five plus the ones hauling the cart came to nine total.
None of them looked particularly threatening at first glance.
Though given that something terrifying always emerged at every Floor 15 tier, I couldn’t be sure it would end here.
‘Well, once I start cutting, something will probably show up.’
Snap.
My hand found the hilt in a single motion.
“Chirp?”
The Sun Bird, which had been burying its beak in its feathers, lifted its head and looked around.
As if it had heard something—or caught a scent.
‘Hmm?’
Then its drooping feathers began to quiver.
And as they did, the reddish-gold shimmer returned to the wet, limp plumage in an instant.
“Screee!”
One of the lizardmen immediately pointed toward the Altar. As if responding to some signal.
The other lizardmen urgently threw something into the Altar.
That same stone I’d seen before.
‘Why does it keep throwing just stones…’
The moment the new stone landed in the Altar.
Hisssss—!
A loud sound, and thick clouds of vapor billowed up.
No—it wasn’t mere vapor. This was actual cloud.
‘What kind of stone are they burning to make clouds form like that…! And iron as a byproduct…was this the real goal all along…!’
Pitter-patter-patter.
Or was it my imagination? The moment that vapor rose, the rain seemed to come down harder.
“…!”
A thought flashed across my mind.
‘I understand now. The Sun Bird was for this.’
The Sun Bird’s cry stops the rain? Wrong.
Not entirely wrong, though. The cause and effect were simply reversed.
‘The bird doesn’t stop the rain. When the rain is about to stop, the Sun Bird is the first to sense it.’
Invisible during rainfall, but sensing first when the rain will cease, then emerging to feed.
The goblins saw that and believed the Sun Bird made the rain stop.
Because whenever that bird flew into the sky, the rain that had been falling reliably ceased.
The lizardmen were different.
They had grasped the truth.
In other words, the Sun Bird functioned like a weather supercomputer.
When they saw signs in the bird’s condition that the rain was about to stop, they threw more of those strange stones into the Altar.
It was a hypothesis, but based on what I understood, that was how it worked.
‘If that’s real, that’s better than any weather agency. I have to admit I’m a little envious.’
Rustle.
The black blade slid smoothly from its sheath.
Now it was time to get the answer firsthand.
* * *
Crunch!
“Shriek!”
The lizardman toppled with a deafening wail as its arm was severed.
I reversed my grip on the Night Song and cut short the creature’s cries.
“Enough noise,” I muttered.
As I turned toward the next objective, something felt off—the area had gone eerily quiet.
“Hm?”
Not a living thing remained nearby save for myself, Roga, and the Sun Bird.
“Kerul!”
Roga stood over the lizardman’s corpse, bloodied dagger in hand.
Apparently he’d finished off a few of the creatures I’d merely disabled.
“….”
I’d started to say something, then stopped.
Given what they’d done to us, there was no real reason to object.
“Good work.”
“Keruk!”
He gave a short reply, then methodically rinsed the blood from his blade in the water and sheathed it.
The little one was starting to show real promise.
“But that’s it? It felt too easy.”
Since completing Floor 15’s basic quest, I’d scarcely had a chance to feel the effects of the Sword Saint skill—now ranked C—or the Sword Mastery Acquisition that came with it.
‘Strange. This is Floor 15. I’d have expected more resistance.’
Granted, a rival had appeared every five floors thus far, and each time brought a Permanent Skill as a reward, so I’d been looking forward to it.
I’d figured this time would be no different—more rescue scenarios and smokescreen, then some terrible thing lurking behind another “Prerequisite Mission.” Yet everything remained quiet.
‘Well, I’d miss it if nothing showed up.’
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I kept my guard high.
This tower was a cunning thing; there was no predicting what it might pull next.
In any case, the immediate situation seemed resolved, so I turned my attention to the Sun Bird.
Up close, its condition was pitiful.
Its plumage lay dull and broken, betraying poor nutrition, and the floor of the cage was heaped with molted feathers.
“Tch. If you’re going to keep something, at least treat it decently.”
Yet in those large eyes lurked nothing but terror.
“Hey.”
The Sun Bird flinched at the sound of my voice through the Iron Cage.
“Don’t worry. I’m here to get you out.”
It wouldn’t understand my words, of course, but I meant to calm it somehow.
“All right. Let me just cut through this cage—”
I drew the Night Song and moved to slash it open when Roga nudged me insistently from the side.
“Hm?”
“Kerul!”
I turned to see a key hanging from his hand.
“Ah, nice work.”
Remarkable—without a word passing between us, the little one had managed to scratch exactly where it itched.
Click. Creak.
Though the lock fell open, the Sun Bird didn’t immediately emerge from its cage.
Or rather, it tried but hesitated.
The moment it extended one leg past the threshold, it caught sight of the water pooling on the floor and recoiled in alarm, withdrawing the leg at once.
“…….”
What?
Did it really hate the rain that much?
The Sun Bird remained hunched, its massive body drawn tight, wings fluttering with each splash of rain.
Or was it afraid of me?
Perhaps it was both.
“Come on. I won’t eat you.”
I waited in silence. After a long moment of hesitation, it carefully extended its head.
That’s when the message appeared.
[Quest Objective: You have secured the Sun Bird.]
[Choose the treatment of the subject.]
[Defeat the Sun Bird.]
▶ Acquired ‘Sun Bird’s Heart’.
▶ Permanently acquired one of the Sun Bird’s signature skills.
[Release the Sun Bird.]
▶ Acquired ‘Sun Bird’s Shining Royal Feather’.
What’s this now?
Kill it, get a skill. Let it live, get a feather.
Looking purely at rewards, the first option seemed far better.
But the Sun Bird standing before me was still trembling at the threshold of its cage.
For all its size, right now it looked no different from a kitten caught in the rain.
To kill it just to squeeze out a better reward…
“No. That’s not right.”
There was no need to deliberate.
“I’ll release it.”
[You have released the Sun Bird.]
[You have acquired ‘Sun Bird’s Shining Royal Feather’.]
I felt a pang watching a skill slip through my fingers, but I checked the reward first to console myself.
“Item information.”
[Sun Bird’s Shining Royal Feather]
Grade: Masterwork
Classification: Crafting Material
Description: The tail feather the Sun Bird prizes most dearly. It holds a pale gold luster like the light of dawn.
‘A masterwork material? Not bad at all.’
I’d half-expected something in the rare tier, thinking of the feather I’d picked up yesterday, but this was a step higher.
Better than I’d hoped, really.
Of course, I couldn’t help but dwell on the reward I’d given up by choosing not to defeat it.
‘Was that my only chance to acquire a skill on this floor?’
Still, no regrets.
“Well, enough of that. Where are we now?”
By then the Sun Bird had stepped fully out of the Iron Cage.
After all the suffering it had endured here, I’d expected it to take flight at once, but…
Was it offering thanks?
It circled around me for no apparent reason.
“Cheep!”
“What? Go on, before I change my mind.”
Circling alone wasn’t enough—now it pecked lightly at the cuff of my sleeve with its beak.
Then it lowered its body and extended its back. As if asking me to climb on.
“…You want me to ride you?”
“Chirp.”
Lowering itself, turning its back toward me, waiting patiently—no matter how I looked at it, this was definitely an invitation to mount.
“Seriously?”
Scary as it was, the bird didn’t seem to be doing this on a whim. There had to be a reason. A way of repaying the favor, perhaps…?
The thought made me waver slightly.
‘I’m the one who saved its life. It wouldn’t deliberately drop me from the sky… and it really does seem to want something from this.’
In the end, I leaned toward accepting.
“All right, let’s go. When else will I get a chance to ride a bird? Never even been on an airplane.”
Besides, it’s this huge—carrying one person shouldn’t be any problem.
* * *
Whooooosh—flutter, flutter!
“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
I’ve lost my mind.
What was I thinking, saying I’d ride this thing?
Regretting the choice I’d made moments ago was far too late.
Far below, the tall trees of the Great Forest looked no bigger than toothpicks.
How many meters were we at now?
Actually, I didn’t want to know.
‘If I fall from here, I’m dead.’
All I could do was grip the feathers in both hands as tightly as I could and pray the bird didn’t have alopecia.
Being someone who lived by the sword, I’d always steeled myself for death—but falling out of the sky while riding a bird I’d saved? That was one death I’d rather avoid.
“Ggggg—kack!”
That’s when Roga’s voice came from directly behind me.
I glanced back to find his face had turned ashen, barely clinging to consciousness.
‘If I look away now, he won’t be there when I turn back…?’
The thought struck me, and I quickly scooped him up with one hand, settling him in front of me.
“Keru?”
I’d worried he might throw a fit about not letting go, but thankfully that didn’t happen.
“That’s right—your instincts have always been sharp. Even back then.”
This Sun Bird hated even the tips of his feet touching puddles, yet here he was, flying flawlessly through the downpour.
‘Well, there’s a difference between not wanting to do something and not being able to do it.’
People dislike getting rained on, but it doesn’t kill them.
About ten minutes passed like that.
Just as I was starting to enjoy the flight now that I’d grown accustomed to it, we arrived at our destination.
“Whew… we made it after all.”
“Kee….”
The bird had brought us to a cave near the peak of a towering mountain.
‘What, he built a nest in a cave? He’s not a bat.’
Though to be fair, there was nowhere better to escape the rain.
In the center of the spacious cave, a nest woven from twigs and leaves caught my eye.
It was crammed with things he’d collected from here and there.
Shimmering scale fragments, metal shards, glass pieces, gold coins and jewelry, smooth pebbles—a complete hoard of junk.
“What, did you bring me here to give me a present from all this? Hmm, I appreciate the thought, but I don’t really—”
As if he understood my meaning, he lifted his head sharply.
“Squawk.”
Then he strode purposefully deeper into the nest and rummaged through his collection frantically.
It was as though he wanted to prove his worth to me for dismissing his treasures.
‘Whatever it is, it’ll just be something shiny.’
Before long, he returned carefully carrying something in his beak.
“A fruit…?”
He’d brought what looked like a fruit I’d never seen before.
It had an appetizing red and yellow skin dotted with white spots like stars.
He set it down carefully into my palm.
It was small enough to fit in my hand, but oddly warm.
“…Don’t tell me you’re giving this to me?”
“Squawk.”
The way he stepped back after offering it suggested it truly was a gift.
“Right, well… thanks. It looks delicious.”
A fruit, though. Had he simply brought me his favorite thing?
“But isn’t this something you like?”
I was about to hand it back when he tapped the back of my hand with his beak instead.
Whether that meant eat it now or accept the gift, I couldn’t say.
But his intention to give it was unmistakable.
“Alright, thank you. Well… after all this, it’d be rude not to accept. Item information.”
[Star-Bound Fruit]
Rarity: Legendary
Category: Fruit
Description: A fruit that grows rarely on the highest branches of the Great Forest.
It drinks in sunlight by day and starlight by night, always holding a gentle warmth.
The Sun Bird treasures it especially.
It is somewhat tart to human taste.
Effect: Upon consumption, you acquire the skill ‘Starstep (A―)’.
I’d summoned the information just to be safe—to see what it was before eating—but acquire a skill from a single fruit?
“Ha, you cunning thing. You’ve been hiding this all along?”
A reward I’d never have touched if I’d killed the Sun Bird.
When you approach with a kind heart, fortune falls from the sky even in your sleep.
Just stepped on a shadow and the skill copied itself
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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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