The Founder's Forge

Fifteen years of horseshoes. That's what the Ironworkers' Guild gave Edric Thorne for his loyalty. Nails and brackets and applications denied, while smiths with half his skill climbed on politics he wouldn't play.

A supply run goes sideways. Edric finds something in the Frontier ruins that kings would kill for: a Settlement Core, dormant for decades. He can sell it for enough gold to buy the title the guild refused him. Or he can plant it in the dirt and build something that belongs to no one but him.

He plants it.

Base-building LitRPG with crafting depth, settlement management, and a smith who'd rather fix a chimney than fight a war. Every wall he raises, every bracket he forges, every structure he reinforces feeds into a dual progression system where better buildings unlock better forges, and better forges produce stronger materials. No harem. No isekai. No chosen one. Just a competent man building something worth defending.