i like the characters, certainly the mc. he is written with depth and I personally like how he rolls. some of the stuff he thinks is just downright funny, I really felt a connection with our awesome mc. I also like some of the side characters, I don't feel a connection with them like I do with the Mc, but there pretty good, and I think that there written really well. I found myself wrapped up in shimmering white threads; they were soft and rather warm, providing some small comfort against the chill of my thoughts and body. I could still see slightly through the gaps in the threads, allowing me to watch as the mother Aridae pulled me upwards, hauling me up the walls with a connecting thread and seeming entirely at ease. I could see it; it did not feel threatened by me. It did not feel threatened by the chosen creation of the Great Core.

In the next moment, I broke free - but not from the threads that had bound me. I broke free of my own scale-flesh, leaving a tiny snake-shaped bundle on the ground. The Great Core had blessed me in a way that made the sacred fast-spots and slow-spots seem pointlessly weak. I would not forget - and if I had to, I would cause myself to suffer even further, should it let me achieve our revenge against the Aridae. That, too, would be added to the things that it had done. It had caused this. I hissed in displeasure with myself. I had been so eager to drink in the mana-water that I hadn’t even seen the threat that waited above. Sting] sparked in my mouth, just a little more powerful than before. I found myself idly chomping at the air, enjoying the pleasant spark, while my puppets freed the next bad-thing. With no more Tanglestings to consume, I had been forced to move on to the next-largest grouping of bad-things. They were sleek and thin, with a design that I almost admired. While underwater, they flitted about at high speeds, ambushing their prey and fleeing from the larger bad-things that preyed on them . Their scales, eyes, and teeth all held the blue of mana-water. Perfect predators of the deep were it not for their small size, almost invisible in the mana-water’s currents. This is basically a slife of life of a tiny snake as he just keeps getting stronger (but, so far, not bigger) with a fervent religious belief in the dungeon core that made him. It's primarily a comedy, especially in so much as the snake and all other characters can't understand each other and the way they fail in that is fairly humorous. It also gets pretty warm hearted later on when, despite the communications barrier, they do good by each other.

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The thought was like a flame, burning me from the inside out. It fought against the chilling slow-venom that had iced over my thoughts; it warred against the numbness that held dominion over my body. It was the last of those that I targeted. With thought-hiss after thought-hiss, I set my spore-puppets in motion. With the efforts of countless Darkweavers combined, it wasn’t long before an array of threads stretched from one side of the river to another. Small gaps in the threads’ weave allowed the mana-water to rush through, allowing the combined weight of many spore-puppets to hold the threads down from each side of the rushing river.

I wriggled again, refusing to be one of them. The slow-venom fought against me, but I wriggled once more, bouncing on the threads that I had been attached to. The Trait changed me, just like all the others before it. [Sting] formed at the tips of my fangs; it could be felt in tingles and sparks that ran up and down their lengths, the motion forming a distracting humming within my mouth-flesh. Not enough for anyone else to hear, but enough for me to be aware of it. The giant Aridae touched the stone floor of the alcove. Her many, many legs flexed, cushioning the impact. Before I knew it, she was waiting next to me. I had seen enough of death to know that. I had seen the way that injured bad-things fell limp and quiet as blood burst from their skin-flesh. I had seen the way that they had struggled at first, desperately fighting to survive. I had seen the way that they had given up.

Now that I had escaped, I could see a familiar cavern. I could see clusters of glow-caps, each casting shadows upon the empty walls. I could see the Great Core’s glow again, suffusing me with its light; it spilled from my shed scale-flesh with a soothing glow, easing over my terror and loss. My thoughts were weak. I was weak. The threads that wrapped around me had been dyed crimson with my blood; it dripped down to the cavern below, forming tiny red splotches that I could only faintly see. Whether that was due to the droplets of venom that had seared their way across much of my eyes or just the distance, I wasn’t sure. The Narration is so good!, Peter berkot performed this book so well, Peter is a superb narrator with alot of voices at his disposal. he has something that other narrators don't have. Do you wanna know what that is? it's the way he can put emotion into his voice. it's like nothing I've ever heard before, he can put such raw emotion into his voices, it gives the characters a depth that alot of narrators just can't do. I certainly give Peter a 5 star. Before I could manage to break free, we reached the cavern’s ceiling. It was a different world, viewed from this high. I would not have imagined that the glow-caps would look so small, that the giant pool of mana-water would appear so...limited.

This story has a great beginning with a lot of what I was looking for. Adventure, battle, survival, growth of character and skills in the system. I waited by the shore, salivating at the thought of what was to come. It took a great many hours, but proved more than worth the wait. This book just takes my breath away, a whole book written from a Snakes POV. How amazing is that? I ask you?!? And it's a very small snek, with a humongous amount of confidence in both the Great Core and in it's own ability, as is fitting for a dungeon boss named Paradox Ouroboros. A boss who can control destiny and thus honor the Great Core. So with his pet hooman adventure team, they set out for adventure. The humans of course have their own notions of what's goin on, but they all realize that their chances of survival has dramatically increased with the "tame" dungeon monster's help! I really like the world building, it's detailed, and intriguing. I feel the author explains just enough to keep us on our toes. the world building is excellent in this book, and I rate it a 5 star. the plot is a 4.8 star.

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The threads were full; they burst with life, one bad-thing after another caught in their embrace. They thrashed and writhed, trying to break free. The threads held fast, clinging to flesh despite the mana-water that drenched their lengths.

In other news, there are a lot of parts of the story that either repeat something that just happened or that are so strongly reminiscent of something that happened long ago that the story itself is slower and repetitive because of it. Some parts of the story are a real slog to get through, especially some of the battles (which I found myself skimming over). I just binged through all 142 chapters and while the updates are frequent, I'm not sure if anything is happening fast enough for it to matter. There are some hints that it's a time loop story, but it really isn't if only because the resets are difficult and have big consequences. What it does mean is that the author gets a do-over if a plot line goes sideways and while not really abused, it's kind of always there. There's a bit of a meta-realization much later by the protagonist regarding this, but it's not clear how that'll shake out for now. The end result is that the story has a fly by seat of pants quality to it and really there are no limitations on where the story could go. The newest of the bad-things were odd creatures, with needle-like spikes across their scale-flesh and the tendency to breathe heavily enough that their entire bodies inflated with air. Any time I came close, they would deflate rapidly, launching spikes in my direction.The Aridae had made a mistake in challenging me. More importantly, it had made a mistake in challenging the Great Core’s wisdom. The Great Core had selected me as its sole defender, and had given me great potential to go alongside that position. Whatever it took, I would ensure that it would learn of its mistake. However long it took.