Ti passed, and eventually the day they were supposed to depart was just a single day away. Lex had three invites to the Expo, and hadn't yet decided who to take with him, which is why he had arranged for a eting among the few he thought would benefit most from going out into the universe.
Every other arrangent had been made, but the only thing that Lex wasn't able to prepare sufficiently for was hiding his Karma. He'd paid a trendous price of a quarter drop of Jorlam's heart's blood to buy a to from the Emporium that explained Karma in great detail.
The to was written by a Heavenly immortal who was trying to understand Karma long ago, and the exact details of the immortal were not exactly ntioned by the Emporium when it was sold.
Either way, Lex spent a lot of effort learning about Karma himself, and from the to and from the Temple of Fasting. Unfortunately, even with his trendous perception and learning ability, the vast amount that he learnt was not nearly enough to figure out a way to hide his Karma.
He even consulted a few other people, including the Celestial immortals Fahad and Noor. There was no solution to his predicant. It sucked, but then again, he was used to things going wrong.
Ultimately, he used his limited understanding to create a seal on his body that would hide his Karma within. Unfortunately, he had a strong suspicion that those truly stronger than him would have no problem detecting the seal. Even if they could not see how much Karma he had hidden, they'd be able to detect sothing was amiss, which was more than enough to attract the wrong kind of attention.
But it was still better than walking around with Karma out on display.
The door to the eting room opened and a few of the Inn workers ca in. Luthor was not present, for he was still busy with Ereboth. The evil, living planet once known as the insatiable was definitely completely satiated by Luthor's presence and probably wished for him to leave day and night, but the man was not willing to go.
Aided by Ripley's insight, he was determined to turn all 10 dungeons into a unique experience that could not be so easily overco, and would definitely attract countless guests. Lex had no problem with that.
Besides him, Anita and Qawain also didn't co, since they were not really interested in leaving the Inn until Anita had her baby.
But besides those few, every other Inn worker who had reached the Immortal realm was invited to this eting. When he saw how many of them there were, he couldn't help but smile. Once upon a ti, he dreaded the thought that soone in the Earth Immortal realm might cause problems in the Inn. Now, he'd like to see them try.
Fortunately, the population of beings above Earth Immortal was very small, comparatively speaking.
Even with the Midnight Gas going on, very few Heavenly Immortals actually ca to watch the event, and for that his guards that he had hired for the event would suffice. Celestial immortals were even rarer, which is why he usually got away with not having Celestial immortal guards - as well as the Innkeeper's aura.
"Hello all," Lex said once everyone had arrived, his voice cutting through the chatter in the room. "I have gathered you all here today for a very important event. I'm sure many, if not all of you already know about the New Age Expo. I already spread word for that a while ago."
A soft murmur spread in the room as everyone confird.
"Well, as you can all probably imagine, it's ti to select who should go to the Expo. Or rather, who wants to go. We only have 3 tickets, donated to us from Riley representing the Versalis Bank. This is a rare opportunity to enter a new, fully mature realm - even if it is for a short while."
"What's our task for the Expo?" one of the workers asked. "Will we be marketing for the Inn to a new realm?"
Lex smiled, for he was now about to share his latest idea with the group. He, personally, thought the idea was ingenious.
"We have no task," Lex said. "Or, to be more specific, since the tickets were a donation and not directly sothing the Innkeeper asked us to participate in, I asked the Innkeeper if we could treat it as a vacation. He agreed.
"Since the point of going to the Expo is to raise our exposure anyway, there's no point in treating it like work. We might as well treat it like a vacation and enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, we only have 3 tickets. But to make it fair for everyone else, even those not going to the Expo can take a vacation as well.
"I've coordinated with so people I know, and made reservations in an amazing place on the planet Dunya. You guys can go there whenever you wish, and increase your exposure that way."
Lex grinned and waited for everyone's reactions, but they weren't the kind he had been expecting. Instead of being excited about the opportunity for a vacation, everyone just seed tepid.
After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, one person asked, "is it… mandatory to go on vacation? Do we have to leave the Inn?"
Lex scratched his head, unsure of how to answer.
"I suppose not," he eventually said. "I just booked the vacation because I didn't want anyone to feel left out. Considering we only have 3 tickets, I thought everyone would like the opportunity to go and explore the universe."
Most of the workers just stared at each other, as if confirming whether the others felt the sa way as they did. Eventually, one of them finally spoke up.
"I get where you're coming from but… who would want to leave the Inn? Even going to the Temple of Fasting seems like… like a downgrade whenever we leave the realm."
Lex was stumped, and more importantly dumbfounded that no one wanted to go on vacation. Suddenly he was reminded of the system's chide about having no friends.
Did no one want to go with him?
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