I Stepped on Their Shadows and Skills Started Copying Like Crazy - Chapter 63

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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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63
“Both of them?”
Gluck’s weathered face twisted subtly.
“One is kinfolk bound together by shared blood, the other an army that has knelt before you. How could you claim to possess both?”
“There’s no reason they can’t help each other just because they’re under me.”
Si Hyeon gestured between the kneeling goblin and those still standing rigidly.
“They band together, grow stronger, and when I need them to listen, they listen. What’s the problem?”
“…….”
Gluck, momentarily robbed of words by such confidence, slowly opened his mouth again.
“Human. You are asking us to serve you as king.”
“I never asked that.”
“You didn’t deny it when they knelt and called you king.”
Gluck didn’t stop there.
“Do you even comprehend the true meaning of the name ‘Aushkatal’?”
“…?”
“A star. The Red Star. Before prophecy and legend dressed it in layers of meaning, that was the only truth the name held.”
Gluck’s single eye swept slowly across the goblins kneeling in the mud, then turned back to Si Hyeon.
“Do you understand? A star is a guide—a light that leads the lost Green Breath out of darkness. A star illuminates the path; it never rules.”
Gluck struck the rocky outcrop with his staff.
Bang!
“One who rules can never be a star.”
“That’s what I’m saying—I’m not ruling anyone.”
Si Hyeon shot back, sounding wronged.
“I never asked them to kneel, but they do it anyway. What am I supposed to do about that? And honestly, I’d rather you all stick together. That way you’re actually useful to me.”
“L-lord!”
Snig, who had been translating nearby, flinched.
“There’s no need to confess something like that so honestly…….”
“What? Does my translator suddenly have his own feelings about this? Translate every word exactly as I say it.”
“Y-yes…….”
Snig relayed the rest of the words with visibly dampened spirits.
Gluck’s single eye flickered as the words reached him.
“You speak of using us so openly, without shame?”
“What, did you think I came down from heaven as some righteous sage to save you?”
The goblins listening intently to Snig’s voice stirred restlessly.
Si Hyeon simply shrugged at the reaction he’d anticipated.
“When I need help, you help. When you need help, I help. As long as we both benefit, that’s enough.”
“Pretty words, certainly.”
Gluck’s tone dripped with contempt.
“But even those lizards who enslaved us spoke of mutual aid at first. They said they’d protect us from the dog-men if we just helped them a little. You saw how that ended, didn’t you?”
“I saw. So you think I’m the same?”
“Those who hold power always claim they are different.”
“When did I say I was different? I’m just like them.”
“……What?”
“I’m not a good person. I hate losing. If you block my path, I’ll cut down goblins, lizards, or anything else.”
Si Hyeon paused, then added plainly:
“I’ve actually killed quite a few goblins. Not here in the Great Forest, but elsewhere.”
The assembled goblins erupted into turmoil.
Their human savior had just confessed to slaughtering his own kind in other places.
Some gasped in shock; others gripped their weapons as if they’d suspected as much all along.
The moment Snig’s translation ended, the goblins aligned with Gluck slammed their spears into the ground in unison.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Did you hear? The human confessed with his own mouth that he murdered our kinfolk!”
“The Stone-keeper speaks the truth!”
Si Hyeon’s followers were not about to remain silent either.
“You ungrateful wretches! You saw with your own eyes how he saved us from the dog-men and the serpent-men, and you still can’t believe? Can’t you see?”
“How dare you call us ungrateful! A debt of gratitude is paid and settled—that doesn’t mean we should actually serve a human as king! Have slavery and chains scrambled your brains so badly you’d forget your own kind?”
One of Si Hyeon’s followers struck his chest in anguish.
“Ha! You could never understand! You slaves who ate scraps from the serpent-men, who watched your own kin become food for the dog-men, who trembled in fear wondering if you’d be next—how could you possibly comprehend what we felt?”
Two groups that had survived different hells now clashed.
The atmosphere heated dangerously in moments, and it seemed fists might fly at any second.
Si Hyeon found himself bewildered, standing at the center of this chaos through no design of his own.
‘What the hell is wrong with these idiots?’
He’d gone through considerable trouble rescuing them from being raised as livestock by the Ogles and enslaved by the Lizardmen, only to watch them turn on each other instead of uniting.
‘Ugh, this noise. Just dominate them and be done with it.’
On the verge of activating Absolute Hierarchy to end this tiresome spectacle, Si Hyeon cast one last glance at Gluck.
“Now I see why you’ve never managed to stand as one.”
Gluck’s single eye twisted savagely.
“How dare you insult us?”
“You have pride worth insulting?”
“What did you just—”
“That vaunted pride of yours—what’s it protected? You’ve been devoured, dragged into slavery, and now you’re at each other’s throats. What exactly has it saved?”
The orphans he’d known back then would squabble over a game console, but the moment someone from outside mocked them for having no parents or tried to ostracize them, they’d swarm together and beat that someone senseless.
That was what family meant to Si Hyeon. That was kinship.
But these goblins—they were too busy tearing at each other, each convinced their own wound ran deeper, dismissing the other’s suffering as trivial.
To Si Hyeon’s eye, that wasn’t pride.
It was just stubborn delusion clung to by those who’d protected nothing—hollow shells mistaken for conviction.
“Pride that can’t even protect one of your own. Take it and choke on it.”
A cutting fury ignited in Gluck’s remaining eye.
“You fool! That pride was what kept us from degenerating into beasts during our suffering—it allowed us to remain Green Breath even in that hellish existence!”
A withered green finger jabbed toward Si Hyeon.
“A mere human swordsman, ignorant of honor and dignity, has no place spouting wisdom on such matters!”
“You’re right—I don’t know much about that stuff. And frankly, I don’t care to.”
“Look well, then.”
Gluck’s finger traced the empty socket of his missing eye.
“This void is proof that we have upheld our pride! In the Red Gorge, I witnessed the deaths of countless kin. Yet even as this eye was torn from its socket, I stood upon my feet and faced my enemy! Can you, with all your arrogant certainty, claim the same resolve?”
The red ring on Si Hyeon’s index finger suddenly trembled violently—as though something had deeply displeased it.
“Hm?”
[The item ‘Ring of Lord Goldarac’ detects deception.]
[Reacting to the arrogance of speaking falsehood before the Lord, it forcibly unseals the slumbering power within.]
[The special effect ‘Golden Eye’ activates.]
[You can now pierce through the target’s hidden information and true value.]
The final special effect sealed within the ring—Golden Eye—unlocks at last.
Si Hyeon’s eyes flooded with an ethereal golden radiance.
Like a tide of gilded light pouring in.
* * *
[Gluck]
Classification: Goblin (Aged)
Description: An elderly goblin who has lost one eye and grown old with time.
Though his combat capability has largely waned, he is respected by many goblins as a wise elder who guided his tribe through the long years.
Hidden Information: During the ‘Red Gorge Massacre’ of old, he willingly gouged out his own eye and offered it to a one-eyed Lizardman captain to spare the young goblins’ lives.
Gluck himself was the one who had blinded that Lizardman, yet he accepted this humiliating bargain and kept it as a lifelong secret.
Survivor’s guilt for living alone while honorable companions bled and fell, and the shame of kneeling before his enemy—these are branded like scars into that hollow socket.
Without invitation, text floods his vision, filling it completely.
“Ugh, my head.”
The information overload, perhaps.
Si Hyeon winced, pressing his temples against the creeping ache.
“Old man, you’ve got quite the story.”
It hadn’t been lost in combat.
One eye exchanged for his children’s lives.
He seemed to regard it as lifelong shame, but Si Hyeon’s judgment differed.
“Listen here, Elder Gluck. You’ve got some backbone after all?”
“…?”
“But you said you stood and faced your enemy to the end… that doesn’t add up. You knelt, didn’t you? In the Red Gorge.”
“…!”
Gluck’s expression froze rigid.
“H-how could you possibly—”
Si Hyeon tapped his own right eye, still submerged in that noble golden light, and answered.
“The one you blinded with your own blade, right? That one. He was vicious too. No matter how much you craved revenge, you made him do it with his own hands. Pulling out his own eye. Damn.”
Gluck’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.
No words came.
It was a secret no one knew—not even the young goblins who had survived thanks to Gluck’s sacrifice back then.
“So you dug it out and offered it. With your own hands.”
“Enough…! Please, enough!”
Gluck’s face drained of color, turning the shade of ash and earth.
A shameful secret he had buried his entire life, one he’d meant to carry to the grave.
The truth of that day—which he’d never dared speak aloud for fear of being branded a coward—was spilling from a stranger’s lips with effortless cruelty.
Snig translated Si Hyeon’s words directly to the assembled goblins, and the gathering erupted into murmurs.
“Then the Lizardmen didn’t withdraw on their own back then…!”
“Begging for his life from those devils! How could he do such a thing!”
“And all that talk of honor and pride…?! That coward!”
Sharp accusations rained down mercilessly on the old goblin’s bent shoulders.
Then Si Hyeon simply tilted his head slightly and murmured a final word.
“Quiet.”
Silence.
The noise died instantly, before Snig could even translate.
The authority of a sovereign, overflowing without any need for Absolute Hierarchy.
Si Hyeon’s voice had already become to the goblins an irrefutable law—nay, something beyond that, almost a sacred oracle.
Having silenced the assembly, Si Hyeon spoke with indifference.
“Do you regret that choice?”
“Regret it? If I had to go back to that day, I’d make the same choice again.”
“Of course you would. You couldn’t have gouged out your own perfectly good eye if you didn’t have that resolve.”
What could this goblin possibly have feared, when he was willing to return to that same moment and sacrifice his eyes again to save those children?
“If you’re so righteous about it, why hide it?”
……
“Ashamed? Or afraid of being called a coward?”
Under Si Hyeon’s relentless questioning, Gluck opened his mouth, his voice trembling.
“…The day I knelt before the enemy commander, the proud warrior Gluck died. I killed him with my own hands. What remained was just a shell, begging pathetically for life.”
“No, speak plainly. That wasn’t begging—it was a trade.”
Si Hyeon cut off Gluck’s words firmly.
“Then the account should be settled properly. One eye—what was its price? You must have received fair value. But that part doesn’t come up, does it?”
“…Forty. To be exact, forty-two.”
Forty-two young goblins owed their lives to Gluck from that day’s massacre by the Lizardmen.
Some of those who were now grown adults stood in this very assembly.
“The death of one warrior bought the lives of forty-two children….”
Si Hyeon let out a laugh, as if it were absurdly simple.
“That’s practically stealing at a discount. And then you wallow in regret.”
It was arithmetic almost laughably straightforward.
The old laws of the goblins meant nothing to Si Hyeon. The honor of a warrior meant nothing.
Lives saved: forty-two.
Eyes lost: one.
That was all there was to it.
“Wallow…?”
In the moment Gluck stared blankly at Si Hyeon’s face, a cry of realization burst from the assembled goblins.
“That’s right…! The children who came back alive from Red Gorge—there were exactly forty-two of them!”
“…So the enemy commander didn’t free them on a whim?”
“Elder Gluck…… you gave your own eye to save us?”
Voices erupted from every corner.
Not contempt. Not blame.
Wonder and gratitude, and the belated remorse of those who had only now learned the truth.
“Elder!”
“Why didn’t you tell us until now!”
Cries rang out from all around.
Si Hyeon, who had silenced their abuse of Gluck moments before, now let them shout freely.
Rather, he urged them on.
Louder. So that Gluck would hear.
“You see, Elder? Not such a grand secret after all, is it?”
Drip. Drip.
Fat tears rolled down Gluck’s single eye.
“Sob… sob……!”
A secret he’d consoled himself he’d done right by, yet could never bring himself to lay bare with dignity.
A guilt that had weighed upon his entire life.
A wound he’d believed could never heal—this stranger had recognized it as a “sacrifice of value.”
Thud.
“Human! No—Your Majesty…!”
Gluck pressed his forehead to the ground, his voice cracking with emotion.
“Allow this old, wretched life to serve you once more!”
In that instant.
Boom!
A heavy sound echoed out. Not from Gluck’s direction. From behind.
“…?”
Si Hyeon turned to look, wondering if a new enemy had appeared, but instead he saw several goblins following Gluck’s lead, pressing their foreheads into the dirt.
“What are they—”
Before he could finish, more booms rang out. Boom! Boom!
There was no time to stop them—the goblins had fallen as one to their knees, their foreheads striking the earth.
“Ki—Sharack! Aushkatal!”
“Ki—Sharack! Aushkatal!”
The goblin horde chanted in unison, hailing their king and savior.
An omniscience that had pierced a secret no one could have known.
The oath of loyalty from old Gluck, respected by all his kind across every tribe.
And now, the king’s mercy embracing them all.
Their resolve had already hardened.
To take Si Hyeon as their king.
“Huh.”
Yet the man who had just been crowned king frowned deeply.
“Snig does the same thing, and these goblin bastards seem to love self-injury. I’ll need to fix that first. Combat effectiveness keeps dropping.”
Si Hyeon clicked his tongue and waved his hand dismissively.
“Stop it. No more… banging your heads. Everyone, get up.”
The goblins scrambled to their feet in alarm, dirt and blood still smeared across their foreheads.
Their obedience was instantaneous and flawless.
‘Time to drive the point home.’
Each of them bore the flags and histories of different tribes upon their shoulders.
To convince them one by one would take days.
‘So I’ll take the fastest path.’
They had already laid down every card—king, savior, destiny itself.
All that remained was to ride the tide.
“Stop wasting time and relay my words exactly. Snig.”
“Yes! Not a word out of place, I swear it!”
“The Prophesied Red Star has come to lead you—you who have lost your light—to that paradise beyond. Follow me and be saved.”
A proclamation the Si Hyeon of old would never have made.
Snig stared up at him, tears welling in his eyes.
“My lord…!”
“What are you waiting for? Go on.”
The Red Star descended upon the Great Forest.
I Just Copy Skills By Treading on Shadows
Author |
Killingpart
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Inc.
Chief Editor |
Editorial Team
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Samyang C&C Inc. – Dream Books
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UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703072
Blog |
blog.naver.com/dreambookss
Twitter(X) |
@dreambookss
Submitted |
[email protected]
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — The contents of this book may not be used in any form or by any means without the written permission of Dream Books.

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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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