Unethical Enchanting (litrpg steam punk adventure)

Terrunmorre! A city of towering copper skyscrapers and floating islands, an industrial utopia. It is truly a wondrous place… for most.  For Aven, it’s just the place he’ll die after a short life.   Aven had the rare condition known as being essence born. He had the rare ability to see and manipulate essence from birth, unlike a normal person. Sounds great, right?  It's not. No one has ever survived it.  In exchange for that unique ability, an essence born has the average essence of a rat, but at least rats had a chance to survive by growing stronger. The defect was widely known as incurable to nearly all scholars, but was it? Since he was young, he alone had been able to see souls inside of living creatures, unlike other essence born, or even gods as far as he knew. They were beautiful. He obsessed over them; they were the only thing that gave his pitiful life any meaning, and if he could harness a fraction of their power, he might just save himself. Too bad the universe itself was against the essence born.  He finds the undeniable truth that even gods can’t alter a soul, and his world shatters around him. None of it made any sense! Aven had seen proof that someone had altered a soul. Two conflicting, undeniable truths. What he had seen was undeniable and yet… Perhaps it wasn't as impossible as he believed. To uncover the truth, he must challenge the city’s ruling class, gatewalkers, beings who have touched the abyss and absorbed a fraction of its endless essence.  In a world full of monsters, the worst ones oftentimes walk among you.  As Aven teeters on the edge of life and death. Just how far would he be willing to go to grasp this one thread of hope?  …………. What to expect: -Weak-to-Strong Protagonist -Intelligent Protagonist -Well thought out and detailed Enchanting/Crafting -Extreme hardship -Anti Hero Protagonist -Character Driven story -Mc slowly building his own arsenal of enchanted items -Gradual Progression -a Litrpg rooted in reality Release schedule: M-W-F The first book is already finished, and I have a lot of backlog, so look forward to consistent chapters :) All warnings are there for creative freedom.