But the later part of the story is what made me lose interest in the book so far. Not only does the little snake get friendly with humans, he gets super attached to them. To the point that his whole new life revolves around them. And to make things worse, there is of course a huge language barrier since they are different species. which cannot be overcome with a skill like telepathy; or showing words in his illusion ability like his status or the status of things he ate... but I guess this is what the author was going for. 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. Then, with a snip, one of my puppets let it free. It was dead before it could even flee, crushed tight between my coils and dropped between my jaws. I flinched as a barbed tendril caught vulnerable mouth-flesh on the way down, the touch setting off a burning, painful spark that zapped across my mouth-flesh.

Any thoughts that I had of escape were quietly erased, eased into their helpless passing by the combination of blood loss and the slow-venom. 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. The only reason im not giving this a full score is that the chapters are usually not that long while the story itself is paced fairly slow and its not uncommon for quite a bit of the chapters to be descriptions of Skills/Abilities and such so sometimes it feels like you read half a chapter of that and then the story progresses ~1 hour before the chapter ends and this is why im giving it a 4 on the style.I chewed on my own tail. The act was no longer comforting in the way that it used to be. Instead, it was more of a means to an end; it was a step towards revenge, a symbol of my hatred. A precursor to my victories. The leviathans of the lake weren’t the only dangerous bad-things in the area, only the strongest of the bunch. There were stretch-tongue bad-things, with bulbous eyes and slimy flesh, that sat on the banks of the lake and hopped about. There were the small-winged bad-things that they preyed on, flitting down to drink from the waters. There were the bad-things that rushed through the river, fins and tendrils propelling them through the mana-water and towards the lake at its end. The scent-taste of something new touched my tongue. Soon afterwards, a behemoth of a bad-thing pulled itself through the opening. A thought-hiss kept my spore-puppets from staring; I didn’t know how long their eyes could suffer through the radiance. Already, I had been forced to remove the effects of [Ambusher’s Vision] on myself, flexing the tiny muscles around my eyes that controlled it. The light was bright, vibrant, and unforgiving.

Characters are also interesting but again slow progression of the story means there is not a whole lot to say about it and a fair bit of the 'view' is obviously from the snake who has no clue about humans so character interactions are so far fairly basic but promising and I expect it to keep being interesting in the future if/when they begin to interact a bit more easily. The sound, too, was unmistakable. Falling water beat rapidly against the ground and the mana-water that fell before it, repeating again and again like the pulse of a drumming heart. The rush of the battle, the pull of pushing past your limits that were all at the beginning is gone at the later part. And the world building part of he story also fell short. Like how do the people get from point A to Point B? Do they walk there? Or do they take carriages? Is everything in a cavern? Many questions I don't know the answer to.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. 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 crimson fluid glinted, reflecting the light of the glow-caps that reached into the alcove. I could see my reflection in it as well; I could see the same image that I had earlier, reflected in the brilliant blues of the mana-water. An orb inset into my head-scales, looking as if it were the Great Core itself.

Her enormous set of fangs pierced through my scales; the sensation was heavily numbed by the infant Aridae’s slow-venom. I was thankful to the Great Core for that mercy, as I could see my lifeblood beginning to pool around me as if to challenge the beauty of the nearby mana-water. This book really reminded me of chrysalis, for those who read my chrysalis review you'd know i loved chrysalis. This book was so good!!!. Certainly one of my favorites, zandran brought alot to the table, and I don't know which one I like more. I'll certainly be getting the sequel, I can't wait to see how this story progresss!!!. And that is where I lost interest in the story because the start of the story was about discovery, survival and Battle. Where areas the later part of the story is more about relationship building, city building, and interpreting languages through facial features. The focus of the story changed too dramatically and not gradually. The Great Core had saved me when all was lost. I would never doubt again. I could never doubt again. I leaned toward the next of the gathered bad-things, avoiding its thrashing, and sank my fangs into unguarded flesh. [Sting] sparked from my fangs, jumping from their tips. The bad-thing twitched minutely.

Character: Valera is my favorite character. Female leads are usually done poorly because they are written as if they are not human. But rather some weak things that need their hands held. But from the compassion of the characters to their willingness to get the job done, one can see the strength of their character.

I needed that comfort, after our deadly first encounter. The thought of it still made my scale-flesh tremble. I think it likely always would. Not to mention that the snake cannot get any information on the monsters he is going to fight with a skill like identification before the fight begins. It feels like most common trope skills in lit RPG stories are not there. Which makes the story less about leveling and interacting with the system, but more on how the snake interacts with his new human buddies. The Snake That Eats Its Own Tail] had given me the ability to heal. When caught by the Aridae’s threads, I had almost cursed at the Great Core for that. Why, I had thought, had I been caught in a situation where I couldn’t even reach my own tail to heal? It had felt as if I was being taunted; as if a way out was being dangled in front of my fangs, only to be pulled away at the final moment every time. Instead, I coiled into myself, chewing the tip of my tail. I rested in the light of the Great Core. I prayed. I begged for forgiveness. A portion of the numbness left my mind and length. I wriggled with greater force, fighting against the slow-venom’s effects. Still, the shimmering threads of white held on tightly.

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. I slithered my way around the forest of glow-caps once again. Though I hadn’t seen any bad-things until I reached the mana-water last time, I still kept a watchful eye on my surroundings. It had taken a bit of time to finish my preparations to reduce the effects of the terrible slow-venom. Things could have changed.