Broken

Chapter 54

I stepped out into the lobby of the Awakening Center with an exhausted sigh. At least the place was far less busy compared to the last time I'd been here. After all, there had been no sudden Selections taking place. At least not that I'd heard about; not that I was keeping track.

"So? What's the deal?" grinned Greyson as he and his brother sauntered over to me.

I had just gone to get reassessed, once again. After the whole dragon summoning/ Faust situation, Carson assumed that it was time for me to go and see if I had managed to tier up.

"Four-star." I confirmed, much to the twin's pleasure. After all, I had been the one holding them back from diving into the much desired Five-star instances.

To be honest, I was leveling up far faster than a normal person would. Even as a Depraved, my growth was quite impressive, taking me from level 23 (as per my last official assessment) to a whopping level 40. Never mind the fact just that a couple months ago I had been a no-star nobody, with a propensity to being hit by random bicycles on the sidewalk.

"Yes!" hissed Eric, clenching a fist in celebration. "Finally, we can go into the five-star instances."

"Sorry for making you guys wait." I sighed. The pair started frog marching me out of the building, which drew the eyes of a couple people. Luckily, none seemed to recognize me right away, and we got out without getting harassed. Not that the twins weren't above getting recognized either.

Now that I was a famous Depraved, it threw the rest of the guild into the spotlight. Before they were just a vaguely interesting small guild, due to the fact that they were rather high powered given their newness, and how unknown their members were (after all, not all depraved and divine get as my spotlight as my lucky self.). But, now that the country had taken a good look at them after it was announced that the newest Depraved had joined them, the whole guild had been thrust into a modicum of fame.

Why? Mainly because it was a guild filled with nothing but hotties, of course. Even a human society forced to deal with magic, monsters, and the towers were not above human vanity after all. 

You couldn't find a magazine with a 'Canada's hottest Raiders' list without seen at least one- if not all the main members- featured on it. Not surprisingly, Bryce, Kuro, and the twins were most often featured. All the members- myself excluded- were undeniably good looking, but those four seemed to have a leg up over the others. My guess was that Bryce fit most people's standards of 'ultimate good looks'; he was tall, fit without being clunky, had wavey blonde hair, and captivating eyes.

Kuro was another obvious pick. He had an exotic beauty to him, with his distant Japanese heritage, long black hair, and fit- yet some how also delicate- look. To top it all off, he was usually quiet and mysterious, never talking to reporters, and almost never smiling. He had more than his fair share of fans, both men and women.

And the twins were, well, twins. I was sure that was the bulk of their charm for these lists. Sure, the pair also had the classically popular blonde-hair-and-blue-eyes, but they were also pests. I knew that there were people out there who liked the 'mischievous' types, but I think the twins were a little too mischievous. They caused nearly as much chaos as <Broken>, and that was without any System-generated bad luck.

So the fact that we made it to the car without getting swamped was a major plus as far as I was concerned. I suppose I should just be happy that I wasn't everyone's sole focus anymore.

"What's the verdict?" asked Nick. He had offered to be our chauffer today, and was seated behind the wheel, looking extremely relaxed and unbothered.

"I'm Four-star now." I said, settling into the back seat between the brothers. I didn't even bother questioning why the pair had to shadow me wherever I went, acting as some kind of bodyguards. They had managed to stop a cat on a trashcan from launching at my face this morning, after all. So they had their uses.

"Excellent." The rouge grinned, dropping his sunglasses from the top of his head to the bridge of his nose, wiggling his eyebrows at me, like he thought he was funny or something. "I'll let the boss man know right away, that way he can start hunting for an instance for us."

"Why the rush?" Eric asked, buckling himself in while Nick wiped out his phone to text Carson. "Not that you will catch me complaining." He added with what must have been a twin trade marked grin.

"Probably due to <Broken>." I said, glad to be out of the heat and into the airconditioned interior of the guild's sedan.

"Right." Agreed Nick.

"If we want to get into an instance without <Broken> being a major factor, then we should do it now, while my saving <Summon Servant of Misfortune> has put the negative side-effects as close to neutral as they will ever be."

"Right." Nick said again, hardly paying attention ay he typed.

"But it's more fun when there are more monsters." Eric pouted theatrically.

"Not to mention all the great loot." Eric added. "Imagine what we could get in a five-star instance."

"I'd rather not, thanks." How could these people be so carefree about something so serious. "Wasn't the giant enough for you?" The last thing I wanted was for something like that to happen again. Never mind that whole 'glitch in the System' crap that had been going on at the time. 

It bothered me that I didn't think to ask Faust about it. Not that I thought she would have told me much of anything. She seemed awfully tight lipped about most things, and didn't seem obligated to listen to me in any shape or form. Honestly, if it wasn't such a terrifying thought, I may have been better off with just summoning dragons... Who the heck wants the ability to summon office workers? I suppose Carson might have liked having access to such people to help him manage the guild.

I wonder if Faust would be butt-hurt if I summoned her to look at the guild's finances? People from the higher floors must be smarter than we so called 'Soil' people, as she seemed to refear to people from Earth. Whatever that meant.