The Path of Ascension 4

After the Empire's vassal war, Matt, Liz, and Aster return to the Path of Ascension with a new complication: a manager. Luna demands their best at all times, and anything less could see the team driven off the Path entirely. With the Tier-10 tournament approaching, the three push their training harder than ever — while a Tier-40 who has shaped several Ascenders before sets plans of their own in motion around them.

The Path of Ascension 4 is the fourth of twelve volumes in C. Mantis's progression-fantasy series, first serialized on Royal Road and published by Aethon Books. The series follows Matt — orphaned in a rift-monster attack and saddled with a Talent rated detrimental — alongside his partner Liz and his Bond, the Arctic fox Aster, as they climb the Empire's Tiers through rift dives, tournaments, and the Empire's political currents.

The books wear LitRPG trappings — dungeons, skills, Tiers — over a cultivation-style core: a magic and advancement system that stays logically and internally consistent, grounded fight scenes, and a protagonist who thinks through his problems. Book 4 continues directly from the vassal-war arc and raises the stakes as the team's public profile grows.