The Path of Ascension

Matt’s life shatters when his Tier 1 Talent is deemed worthless, barring him from the guilds that hunt the rift-spawned monsters that destroyed his home. Stuck washing dishes at a backwater inn, he resigns himself to obscurity—until a chance encounter with two enigmatic ascenders changes everything. They offer him a place on The Path of Ascension, the empire’s brutal competition to climb the Tiers and transcend mortal limits. Armed with a stolen skill and a desperate ambition, Matt fights through dungeons, cultivates forbidden magitech, and battles rivals who’d kill to keep him from rising. But power has a price, and the higher he climbs, the deadlier the secrets he uncovers. Now, Matt must outrun his past and outmaneuver the empire’s shadowy elites before his stolen strength becomes his downfall.