Goblin King: My Innate Skill Is OP-Chapter 290: Assimilation

I couldn't bring myself to focus on the skill notification just yet.

What the alpha had tried to say at the very end kept gnawing at me, looping over and over in my head like an unfinished sentence that refused to settle.

More…

That was the only thing I could clearly make out.

More what?

More apes?

More of them?

Was it a warning — there are more of us, and we're coming for you — or was it just a dying thought clawing its way out without meaning?

I couldn't tell.

And honestly… if that was what it meant, then let them come.

If more of these Varkuun Howlers existed out there, drawn to Deathroot or to power itself, then they'd simply become stepping stones.

Training dummies for what my clan was becoming. Proof that I wasn't just building strength for show.

Still, I didn't like loose ends.

I pushed the thought aside for now, forcing my attention back to the system window hovering patiently in front of me.

Whatever that alpha had meant could wait.

I finally looked at the reward.

Phantom Breakstep.

Just the name alone made my interest spike.

"A movement skill…" I muttered, eyes narrowing slightly.

If I was reading it right, this had to be the evasion skill the alpha had been using to slip past my attacks.

I brought up the details and read through them carefully.

[Phantom Breakstep (B-Rank)] — Active

Instantly fractures the user into multiple moving mirage copies, disrupting enemy targeting and pursuit.

For three seconds, the user enters a displacement state and cannot be physically harmed.

Mirage figures persist for ten seconds before fading.

Notes:

• Mirages are non-physical and cannot attack.

• Invincibility ends after three seconds, even if mirages remain.

• Best used to disengage or reposition.

…Yeah. That checked out.

It perfectly explained what I had witnessed during the fight.

Every time I thought I had the alpha cornered, it split into false images, breaking my targeting and forcing me to hesitate for just a fraction of a second.

My void slashes and flames had erased the mirages on contact because those attacks carried mana. They weren't purely physical.

If I had attacked without mana—if I'd relied on raw force alone—I probably would've cut through nothing but air and wasted precious time.

It was a solid evasion skill. Not flashy, not overwhelming, but extremely practical.

And with a higher rank, I had no doubt the duration, number of mirages, or invincibility window would only improve.

As for whether it was useful to me at the level it was… I wasn't entirely convinced.

I already had Warp. Swap. Rift-based movement. Skills that bent space outright rather than confusing perception.

Phantom Breakstep felt redundant for my own kit, more of a sidegrade than a true upgrade.

But for my goblins?

This skill was gold.

Survivability, disengaging potential.

A way to escape overwhelming enemies or reposition without dying instantly.

For frontline fighters, assassins, archers—hell, even workers caught in the wrong place—it could mean the difference between life and death, so I didn't hesitate.

I opened [Skill Share] and distributed Phantom Breakstep to every single goblin in my clan without delay.

If the world was going to keep throwing monsters like that alpha ape at us, then my people needed every edge they could get.

As I completed the transfer, the sound of footsteps reached my ears, and I turned just in time to see Narg walking toward me, his movements steady, his presence… complete.

The integration was done.

"Chief, what happened?" Narg asked, his gaze dropping briefly to the corpse of the ape sprawled across the ruined ground.

"I ran into a minor inconvenience," I replied casually, my eyes never leaving him. "Nothing worth mentioning."

The first thing that caught my attention… was his height.

And annoyingly enough, it stood out immediately.

I had grown taller myself after evolving and obtaining a class, enough that I'd finally stopped feeling like I was perpetually looking up at everyone. I'd been roughly the same height as Narg before this.

But now?

With Deathroot fully assimilated — with his body subtly rewritten to house that kind of power — he had grown another inch, maybe two. Just enough to put him clearly above me.

The height, of course, wasn't the only change.

It was just the first change my insecure ass noticed first.

His skin had taken on a slightly ashen tone, not sickly, but muted, as though some of the color had been drained from it.

Thin black veins traced along his arms, pulsing faintly beneath the surface in a slow, steady rhythm, like something breathing just out of sight.

And his gaze…

His eyes looked dull at first glance, almost lifeless, yet there was a depth to them that unsettled me, a darkness that felt as though it could pull you in if you stared for too long.

And his aura.

It wasn't pressed outward aggressively like Dribb's or settled heavily like Gobbo's.

Instead, it felt… ghostly. Cold. Subtle.

The kind of presence that brushed against your spine rather than slamming into you, sending faint tingles crawling up my back even when I wasn't looking directly at him.

For a brief moment, worry tightened in my chest.

Had Deathroot changed him too much? Had I pushed him too far, rewritten him into something unrecognizable?

Then Narg suddenly dropped to his knees.

The shift was immediate.

The darkness in his eyes receded, replaced by unmistakable excitement as his expression lit up with something raw and sincere.

"Thank you, Chief, for entrusting me with this power," he said, voice steady despite the emotion behind it. "I will not let you down."

I found myself grinning before I even realized it.

Yeah. He had changed.

But not in the way I feared.

The look on his face was the same one he'd worn back then; the day I handed him the magical staff I'd looted from the first Chosen I ever killed.

That same mix of awe, gratitude, and burning determination.

Whatever Deathroot had done to his body…

The core of Narg was still very much intact.

"Stand," I said, and...