The Great Core's Paradox 2: A LitRPG Adventure

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The Aridae had pulled me into a vast network of shimmering white threads, stringing across the distance between massive stone-spikes. The threads twisted together, forming themselves into great bridges, easily allowing the giant bulk of the Aridae to travel across. I imagined that even I, without the many legs of the Aridae, might be able to slither across their lengths. Until, one day, the Coreless found us. Until they tried to steal away my creator. Until, with no other option, I swallowedthe Great Core that had made me. 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. It wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, but I wanted to kill them myself. I had already lost experience bringing the Darkweavers into the light of the Great Core. I needed everything that I could get. The Great Core must have known, though, that the ability was for another time. It must have known that [The Endless Cycle] would protect me.

Once pulled to the surface, however, finally freed from the bundle of threads that kept them trapped and away from the other bad-things, they flopped around helplessly. When my coils wrapped around the first, there was nothing it could do. The same was true for those that came after. Aridae of assorted shapes and sizes scrambled across the strong bundles of thread, winding across them as easily as I might wind across the Great Core’s sacred spots. It was their home, their place of power.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. 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. Though I had hoped to train my venom resistance further, there were limits to what I could do by myself. I had been forced to inject myself with my own venom. The pain had been terrible; agonizing, even. Yet for the Great Core, I had done it. 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.

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. They spread from the alcove where the Aridae mother made her home, sweeping across the cavern’s ceiling. Were it not for the light of the glow-caps and the mana-water, the threads would have been nearly invisible. With the light, however, they were clear to see. 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.

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But I had a problem with his blind faith towards "the Great Core" right from the start and that became ludicrous once he "protected" it by eating it. So the "Great Core" literally doesn't exist but it is still his every devotion and every thought and the source of his great determination. I don't like seeing people being duped and it is only made worse when they're doing it to themselves. 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. 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 city of Verdant Grove has suffered a calamitous collapse, the Nature Core that once fueled its crops’ growth now running rampant. Its plantlife has mutated in strange and dangerous ways, each new twisting of the vegetation performed under a trio of guiding thoughts. Drop by crimson drop, my will faded. My length went numb - not with slow-venom this time, but with pure lethargy. I was tired of struggling.

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. 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. 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. And, for one who was created by the Greatest of Cores, is there anything more satisfying than proving another Core to be less than? 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.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. 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. 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. 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.