Died for a Million Times: I can Copy Infinite SSS Talents!-Chapter 73 --Shadow in the Dark

Once everything was ready, Link walked over to the wall and switched on the lamp hanging from it.

The orange-yellow flame began to flicker gently within the protective glass casing. Its warm glow gradually spread across the room, casting a long, thin shadow behind Link.

Holding his breath, Link began to murmur words of praise he had once heard others use when worshipping the Night Goddess. At the same time, he activated the Gaze of the Night Goddess talent.

Gurgle... gurgle...

A strange, swamp-like gurgling sound began to echo softly behind him.

Then, a humanoid figure that resembled black sludge began crawling out directly from Link’s shadow. It had no facial features, nor any distinguishing details on its surface, but its physique and height were exactly the same as Link’s.

If anything, it looked like someone had cut out Link’s shadow with a pair of scissors and shaped it into a movable human specimen.

Link slowly raised his head and looked at the pitch-black version of himself, a strange feeling rising in his chest.

"Hello?"

He tried greeting the Shadow in the Dark, but received no response.

Confused, he scratched his chin in thought—only to find the shadow mimicking his motion exactly, also reaching up to rub its chin.

"Huh?"

Realizing something was off, Link began testing further. He crouched down, jumped, and even rolled on the floor.

Sure enough, the Shadow in the Dark mirrored his every movement without fail.

"Interesting..."

Link let out a soft chuckle. Then he stomped heavily on the ground, summoning his spiritual powers to manifest the Rocksolid Greatbow and Shadow Arrow in his hands.

Looking back at the Shadow in the Dark, he saw the same bow and quiver had materialized on its body.

Link nodded in satisfaction and pointed toward a corner of the room. He gave his shadow a command:

"Use your weapon and fire at that spot!"

The moment he issued the command, the Shadow in the Dark moved. It raised both hands above its head and slowly mimicked the action of drawing a bow.

With a whoosh, a pitch-black arrow of pure darkness shot through the air and struck the corner Link had pointed at.

However, the impact wasn’t as destructive as Link had anticipated—it only damaged half the wall.

"What? Is 70% of me really this weak?"

Doubtful, Link approached the damaged section to inspect it more closely.

To his surprise, he discovered that the wall was made of tungsten steel with a thickness of twenty centimeters. Forget destroying it—most espers would struggle just to scratch its surface.

Realizing this, Link’s lips curved upward with excitement.

"As expected of me! Even at just 70%, it’s still that powerful!"

But for Link, the current performance of the Shadow in the Dark was still far from enough. If it truly was a one-to-one copy of himself, then all of his talents should have been doubled.

This time, instead of demonstrating the talent himself, he ordered the Shadow in the Dark to activate Veil of the Impostor.

Before his very eyes, the pitch-black silhouette transformed into a different figure—a thin, slightly hunched figure that looked nothing like Link.

"Keep going!"

Link urged the Shadow in the Dark to continue. The obedient shadow began showcasing each of his talents one by one.

Eventually, it reached into its own chest and pulled out a glowing green gem in the shape of a heart—the Plague Core.

The moment it appeared, Link caught a flicker of agitation on the shadow’s otherwise emotionless face.

"Uh-oh... Chosen of Nurgle is a talent granted by an outside deity. What if the local Night Goddess dislikes that? What if they start fighting... in me?!"

But the disturbance was brief. Soon after, the Shadow in the Dark returned to its cold, expressionless state, as emotionless as a machine.

Seeing this, Link sighed in relief. He guessed the momentary anomaly was likely due to the divine powers of two different deities reacting against each other. Since both talents resided within Link’s own body, their clash would naturally settle over time.

"Right, there’s one more thing!"

Link focused his thoughts and commanded the Shadow in the Dark to use the Gaze of the Night Goddess talent.

If his theory proved correct, then he would never have to worry about the limit of ten shadows again.

He envisioned a loop—having the Shadow in the Dark replicate the Gaze of the Night Goddess, summon its own Shadow in the Dark 2, and repeat the process endlessly.

Not ten... not a hundred... but thousands of Shadows in the Dark!

Unfortunately, reality dashed his hopes.

The Shadow in the Dark couldn’t replicate or create another instance of the Gaze of the Night Goddess talent. freeweɓnøvel.com

Apparently, the goddess wasn’t so easily tricked. She had closed off that loophole in advance.

"Well, fair enough..."

Link wasn’t too disappointed. He had already expected this outcome. Being able to infinitely replicate would’ve been an unexpected bonus, not a default.

Composing himself, he moved on to test one final talent—the domain-type talent he had recently copied from General Nate: Infinite Void Domain.

This time, the attempt failed again.

Unlike Link himself, the Shadow in the Dark couldn’t comprehend the nature of a "domain." Without understanding, it couldn’t imagine it—let alone activate it.

Link was stunned. He had always assumed the shadow’s 70% replication only referred to raw power. But now it seemed some talents couldn’t be copied at all—such as Infinite Void Domain.

Based on this, Link also deduced that the Shadow in the Dark likely couldn’t replicate his UR-rank talent, Death Replication.

After all, these summoned entities had no concept of death. Even if destroyed, they would simply regenerate after a cooldown period. In essence, they were conceptual fragments derived from Link himself—concepts that could not truly die, only temporarily fade.

Without death, there could be no posthumous replication.

With that, Link finished summarizing the key aspects of the Gaze of the Night Goddess talent.

Exhausted, he slumped onto the ground.

This talent was incredibly strong—but still fell a bit short of the god-tier omnipotence he had imagined.

Nevertheless, being able to replicate most of his own skills and talents had already pushed his combat strength to a whole new level.

If Link alone had a combat power of 1, and the Shadow in the Dark was 0.7, then together their output would definitely exceed 1.7.

In battle, every variable could change the outcome. Having another fighter—even one partially weaker—meant far more than just adding another target.

It was the beginning of something much greater.