The Salvage Warden (The Warden's Tide, #1)

Three hundred souls died on Sorrow’s Reef. Now, one man has to live there.
Merrick Ironwood was a navigator who trusted the wrong chart. For his failure, the Empire didn't execute him; they exiled him. Sentenced to tend the crumbling lighthouse on the world's deadliest reef, he expects to die alone, crushed by the elements and the weight of his own guilt.
But the Reef doesn’t just take. It gives.
When the System awakens, Merrick unlocks the [Salvage Warden] class. Suddenly, the graveyard of a thousand ships isn't just debris. It is a resource.
With his unique ability to sense the history of lost things, Merrick begins to reclaim the wreckage. A driftwood platform becomes a foundation. Rusted iron becomes a forge. A broken hull becomes a home.
He isn't alone for long. As he builds, the reef draws in other lost souls:
Linna, a master cook who can buff a community with a single stew.
Tommin, a blacksmith with scarred hands who swore never to forge a weapon again.
Mira, a navigator seeking the truth behind her family’s death.
Pip, a silent child who needs a place to belong.
Together, they turn a prison into a sanctuary. They map the deadly currents, farm the sea, and craft a life from the flotsam of the past.
But Sorrow’s Haven is becoming too valuable to ignore. A pirate confederation is gathering on the horizon, and a corrupt Admiral wants his secrets to stay buried beneath the waves. To protect his new family, Merrick must do more than just survive. He has to build something worth defending.
Exile was the sentence. A kingdom is the result.