I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 57

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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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57
The reunion of brothers that Roga had so longed for had finally come.
It wasn’t quite what I’d expected, but I gave Roga the time he needed.
With so long apart, the two had plenty to say—their conversation stretched on.
Of course, I couldn’t understand a word of it.
But even without the language, I could read the mood well enough.
I’d eaten my share of awkward silences over the years. This was nothing.
Then something shifted. Something strange.
‘What the—?’
He was releasing the goblins?
Garak raised his hand partway through their exchange, saying something, and then simply freed the goblins from their bonds.
What came next was stranger still.
The chains fell away, but the goblins didn’t move.
They didn’t bolt. They just exchanged nervous glances, waiting to see what the others would do.
A few of them even snuck glances toward me and Roga, but none of them took a single step.
That’s when it clicked.
‘…Is he running an experiment?’
The audacity of this one called Garak was staggering—he was demonstrating it right here, in front of everyone.
Proving it: even if you give them freedom, they won’t run.
It was devastatingly effective.
Not a single one of the dozens of goblins who’d been released moved an inch.
After that experiment, Roga visibly shook.
His spirit had shattered completely.
Garak stood on the opposite side, smugly going on about something, when a young goblin suddenly broke rank.
“…Huh?”
The child didn’t make it far before tumbling headlong and wailing, crying out in small, helpless squeaks.
Roga immediately stepped forward to help the fallen child up, but Garak grabbed his wrist.
I’d been willing to let them have their moment—brothers, after all. But grabbing his wrist and dragging him away? That was different.
“Not happening.”
By the time I finished the thought, I was already moving.
And now.
“Let him go. He doesn’t want this.”
“What—?!”
One hand gripped Garak’s arm while the other was already closing around my sword’s hilt.
“I think the reunion ends here.”
Time for a third party to step in.
* * *
Supposedly the older brother, but the creature was a head taller than Roga.
“Hah—quite the grip you’ve got.”
He thrashed to wrench his wrist free, and for a goblin, the bastard had surprising strength.
“Keru!”
Shwick!
The moment Garak barked out a short command, the spear-tips of the Lizardmen around us snapped toward me in perfect unison.
“Right. This is better. I was never much for talking anyway.”
Six spear-points hurtling toward me.
I hurled Garak away in one smooth motion and moved to meet them.
Night Song traced a wide, sweeping arc.
I caught the spear-shafts along its path, wound them in effortlessly, and flung them away.
“Wh—what—?!”
The lizard-soldiers stood slack-jawed, staring down at their empty hands.
I kicked off the soft marsh-ground and rushed them down.
‘This light…?’
It felt like stepping on yielding earth itself.
‘Light Footstep’ would’ve let my feet sink right in if I pushed this hard, but ‘Star Step’—several levels higher—felt entirely different.
Savoring the power of Star Step, I swept my blade across in a wide cut from left to right.
Slice—!
Five of the six Lizardmen who’d dared level their spears at me separated neatly into upper and lower halves; in that same instant, a shadow surged up from beneath my feet, cutting across the arc of Night Song’s trajectory.
“Ugh.”
An unintended dice-cut. I was used to cleaving things in two, but four pieces still felt awkward.
Five fell outright. The sixth, caught at the edge of the arc, was barely nicked.
Huff, huff….
Not a loss for me, but for the living one.
Unlike his dead comrades who hadn’t even felt the pain, this one thrashed across the ground, clutching his belly.
The moment I moved to put him out of his misery, two more Lizardmen came charging in.
Slash!
Spear from the right.
Sword from the left.
They weren’t mere foot soldiers—their coordination was solid.
‘Squad leaders, maybe?’
The problem was I couldn’t block them—not without slowing down.
I dropped low to slip past the blade, pressed my dark steel against the spear shaft, and climbed it in one fluid motion.
Like a black serpent ascending a staff.
…!
By the time confusion bloomed in his eyes, my fangs were already sinking into his throat.
Rip!
Before the spearman’s severed neck even touched the floor, I granted the swordsman beside him the same mercy.
The enemy’s assault stuttered to a halt.
Watching several of my people swept aside in an instant, the creatures hesitated.
Huff, huff…!
They kept their weapons raised, but none of them charged with the same reckless abandon as before.
“Come on now, don’t stop. There’s plenty more work to do. Put your backs into it.”
If they wouldn’t come to me, I’d go to them.
Whoosh!
I tore into their formation, severing serpent heads without hesitation.
The problem was the goblins.
The Lizardmen were clear enemies, but the goblins occupied a grayer space.
So when they charged, I either kicked them aside or disarmed them cleanly.
“Keh, keru!”
Another goblin hurled itself at me, eyes squeezed shut.
“Get out of here!”
I swatted the flat of my blade against his helmet, and he dropped like a stone, unconscious.
The goblin behind him raised his spear with trembling hands.
Terror in his eyes. I flicked his spear tip aside with mine.
“Go. While you can.”
If he’d actually landed the thrust, I would’ve beaten him half to death even if I didn’t kill him.
He hesitated, so I let him go—and he dropped his spear and fled.
“Smart one. That bastard lives to tell the tale.”
That’s when a massive shield-bearing Lizardman stepped forward from the rear ranks.
He was far larger than the others.
If the other Lizardmen looked like ordinary soldiers, this one had the build of an athlete—someone who actually knew how to move.
The blade in his hand was serrated too, jagged like a saw tooth. Nothing about him was unremarkable.
He looked like the commanding officer of this entire column.
“Ah, good. If you’re wearing that insignia, you ought to set an example.”
He puffed out his throat and bellowed, clearly trying to seize the advantage through sheer presence.
“RRRAAAAAAH!”
“Oh, hello. Nice to—wait. Is that a frilled lizard?”
I’d figured it was just noise, but something was actually there beneath it.
The problem was I wasn’t an animal, and I certainly wasn’t about to panic just because he’d flared his neck frill.
After his roar, he thrust forward with his shield held high.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He meant to bulldoze me with raw strength—and he looked confident enough to back it up.
“That’s not a bad strategy, actually…!”
The moment his shield came within reach, I grabbed the Night Song with both hands and brought it down vertically.
Crack!
The shield didn’t shatter. But the cracks were spreading.
“Now that’s a decent shield.”
Instead, the arm holding it bent backwards at an unnatural angle.
……?
The Lizardman’s eyes wavered.
His expression was one of pure confusion—why was his arm broken when the shield was intact?
“Sorry, but you’re not in my weight class.”
The second slash shattered the shield that had split in half, and the third carved the creature’s saw-tooth into uselessness.
The fourth one.
Rrrip.
I tore through its throat-guard.
“Hisss…!”
The formation visibly wavered.
When I’d told them to run, they didn’t—but now half the goblins had bolted with their tails between their legs, and the rest had retreated to a safe distance, having figured out I wasn’t trying to kill them.
Only the boss remained.
Rain falling on the swampland.
Garak strode through the dense reeds.
“A little late, weren’t you? If you meant to fight me instead of running, you should’ve come straight on from the start.”
These boss-types always make their grand entrance at the last possible moment. After all the underlings are dead.
“Keruuuk…!”
Fury rippled across the creature’s eyes as it looked at me.
Why was I interfering.
Why was my sibling among all those goblins.
Why was I ruining everything.
Something like that, anyway.
Perhaps because of that, both eyes and blade-tip were saturated with killing intent.
Clang!
The short dagger and Night Song crashed together. It was heavier than I’d expected.
“Hah… so you’re more than just a smooth talker, I see?”
Realizing brute force wouldn’t work.
The creature immediately withdrew after that first impact and dove low again.
The short blade thrust upward from below.
‘…!’
And simultaneously, a second dagger I hadn’t seen him draw went for my thigh.
A sharp attack—the kind you’d never expect from a goblin.
I backstepped, genuinely surprised.
‘This creature has real combat experience and good instincts. If it had been Lizardman-class in tier…’
It might’ve been as difficult as fighting Sraigh.
But unfortunately, this was still just a goblin, and it couldn’t overcome that inherent limit.
I sidestepped its relentless assault easily, then grabbed its throat with my bare hand as it pressed close, and drove it straight into the ground.
“You little—!”
Thud!
“Ackgh!”
I pinned the creature down with my knee as it thrashed to free itself, then brought my blade to its nape.
Loga’s brother or not, an enemy is an enemy.
Besides, this creature had earned a place in the Lizardmen’s ranks—a faction that didn’t even consider goblins to be people.
Leaving it alive could become a problem.
“Forgive me, Loga.”
The moment I raised my blade.
“Ashkatal!”
Loga came rushing toward me, crying out my name.
Slam!
The creature threw himself at me and grabbed my arm.
“Kiru, keru! Loga! Kerakarak!”
Goblin speech poured out.
Fast, desperate, incomprehensible words.
But the meaning was clear.
Don’t kill his brother.
“Step aside.”
This word, too, he should have understood.
Yet Loga shook his head.
The hand gripping my arm tightened.
Such lightness—like brushing dust from a cloth, something I could flick away without effort.
The problem was that I was hesitating to do it.
With just a slight increase of pressure in my hand, I could sever Garak’s throat right here.
I was on the verge of dismissing Loga and tightening my grip when—
“Si… breathe…!”
The strength draining from his fingertips stopped dead.
“…Damn it.”
And he couldn’t muster the force again.
“Ha… this is exactly why you shouldn’t get tangled up in other people’s family troubles.”
He snapped the blade aside irritably—
Crack!
Night Song plunged not into Garak’s throat, but into the mud beside him.
“K-kee… kee…!”
Garak’s face bore the look of a man aged ten years in an instant.
Si Hyeon stared down at him and spoke.
“Get out.”
It didn’t matter if he understood or not.
If he didn’t understand, it was his loss, not mine.
“Count yourself lucky. Since my target wasn’t your throat, I’ll let you walk.”
If it had been my target, Roga or not, I’d have opened his gullet.
Still holding the creature’s neck, he released it.
The thing stumbled backward, eyes darting nervously to gauge his mood, and a storm of complicated emotions flashed across its face.
Confusion, fear, rage, shame, and probably relief.
Once Garak had fully retreated, he barked something at his subordinates.
Soon they were gathering up their dead and wounded, shuffling away.
There was no resistance.
The only one among them who might have put up a fight had already fallen to my hand long ago.
Roga stood beside him, quietly watching Garak’s receding figure.
Garak glanced back once, but that was all.
He turned his head forward again and led the remnants of his force silently out of sight.
“This should about do it….”
[Special Mission ‘Trial of Observance’ has been completed.]
[Clear Evaluation: EX Rank]
[Special Mission completion rewards are being granted.]
The System Message appeared with perfect timing.
Yes, this would suffice.
Either way, Floor 16 was finished.
There was a lingering unpleasant taste to it all, but the objective had been achieved regardless.
“Roga, let’s go.”
Roga shook his head.
It was a response Si Hyeon had never seen before.
This creature who had always nodded eagerly without understanding a word—
“…? You won’t come?”
“Kee-roo! Roga. Ki-roo!”
And Roga began speaking urgently about something.
“If it’s gratitude, never mind. If it’s an apology, don’t. I spared you—I didn’t execute you. If it had been up to me to execute you, you’d be dead regardless. Anyway, let’s head home. We’ll talk it through with Snig.”
He tilted his head to signal they should turn back, gesturing behind him, but Roga gave the same response.
A shake of the head.
Then, as if a realization had struck him, his eyes lit up, and he communicated his intent through body language.
Roga pointed back and forth between the child, himself, and the forest.
As if saying the place he needed to go was that forest.
“You’re not saying you’re staying here to bring that child back yourself.”
Though he couldn’t have understood, Roga nodded.
“You can manage it alone?”
Another nod.
“Hmm….”
To be honest, he wanted to stop him.
Roga wasn’t strong. No—he was weak.
That creature carrying the child through the Great Forest?
Whatever emerged—beasts, stray remnants of Roga’s old faction, Lizardmen scouts—it would all end the same way.
Which was why taking him back to Bigo made sense. At least by my judgment.
‘That child too….’
In a place as vast as Bigo, laying out one more bed, setting one more spoon at the table—it was nothing.
And once he succeeded in restoring the Goblin Faction, he could take the child home then.
‘That won’t work on me.’
Yet it couldn’t be helped.
Roga had already made up his mind to take responsibility for the child’s return.
His eyes made that clear.
A sigh escaped me.
“Well. Grown attached already, have we?”
I’d never planned to keep him forever anyway.
Snig was bound to Bigo and had his own peculiarity, but Roga—his birthplace was here. This was where he belonged.
It was time for him to return to his rightful place.
And he wanted it too.
“Fine, I understand. Go well. You’ve worked hard.”
“Kekruk!”
He nodded his head firmly and repositioned the child on his back.
In that moment, the short dagger at his waist caught my eye.
It was the Lizardman Short Sword I’d given him long ago.
For Roga, it was neither too short nor too long—just an awkward length.
The sight of it wouldn’t leave me, so I pulled out the worn dagger from my pouch.
“Wait.”
Kim had practically forced it into my hands, and it had earned its weight many times over when I needed it.
“Take this. If you’re going to carry the child, this will serve you better than that one.”
Roga accepted the short dagger, taken aback.
“Kekruk?”
“I’m lending it, not giving it. Return it when we meet again.”
It wasn’t as though he could understand my words anyway. Still, I wanted to say it.
Roga looked between the dagger and me, then clutched the blade carefully in both hands.
“Kekruk….”
“It’s not a gift, I told you.”
“Kekru!”
Now it truly was time to part.
Roga bowed his head once in gratitude, then turned toward the forest path with the child.
‘And he’s just a child at that.’
Barely a teenager.
Once he had trailed behind, watching only my back. Now he was showing me his.
“Don’t die.”
Words he couldn’t hear, couldn’t understand even if he did.
Still, I hoped they reached him. As they always did.
I copied a skill just by stepping on shadows
Author |
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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