Reed Altius has come a long way from the level 5 Summoner pulling wooden chairs from the junk pool.

His garbage skill evolved to Mythic rank, his party includes three legendary women pulled from the sealed archives, and he just passed the Church's sanctioned Hero on the frontier rankings.

Now the Church is calling him to answer for it.

A formal investigation into his skill's access to sealed records. A hearing before the Fourth Circle Inquisitor. A suspension petition designed to freeze his progress while the Hero catches up. And behind it all, a conspiracy that reaches higher than any Church office—to the Crown itself.

Reed isn't playing defense.

While the investigation grinds forward, he pushes deeper into frontier dungeons, develops a lethal new combat technique, and pulls a fourth woman from the archives: a healer who was executed sixty years ago for refusing to let a prisoner die. His party becomes a five-person machine that clears content rated for six—and clears it faster than anything the frontier has ever seen.

But enemies evolve too. A Church-sponsored Striker rebuilds the Hero's party. A Crown Enforcer arrives with a sealed warrant. A woman from Reed's past offers testimony that could save him—and intelligence that could destroy him. And the name behind it all, the Seneschal, remains hidden in the capital, pulling strings that Reed can feel but can't yet reach.