Ruthless

Joe keeps advancing his ritual magic and skills while drifting further from his combat team and deeper into leadership problems. As the town and guild grow stronger, more enemies and rivals take notice, and an ultimatum arrives through assassins and blood-soaked threats.

With food, supplies, and tensions tightening, the guild must defend its settlement from enemies it has made along the way. Joe is pulled between research, training, town-building, and increasingly dangerous political pressures, even as his own choices and stat shifts complicate how others see him.

The conflict builds toward a major showdown that forces Joe and the guild to confront the cost of their progress. The book also pushes the series toward its next stage, leaving Joe on the edge of a new area and a new set of choices about what he is willing to do.