He was willing to splurge on these three Metacs, but they weren't that expensive. A rank 1 Metac usually costs between 500 energy stones and 1,000 energy stones. Rarely do they go above that.
Of the three Metacs, only the Money Armor Metac costs 1,000. The other two cost 500 and 800 energy stones. So he only spent 2,300 energy stones on the three of them. This price is only 15% more expensive than the price of a cloudy date.
After getting what he wanted, he quickly left the market.
He was in such a hurry that he ran back to his accommodation. This was so that he could use the cloudy dates to cultivate as soon as possible.
He still had 34,500 energy stones left from his winnings, but he wasn't interested in buying anything else. Not even the mech he was interested in was good enough to keep him in the market.
This was partly because he couldn't use the mech yet since he didn't have its Core Metac. But the main reason he ignored the mech was that he prioritized cultivation above it. After all, he can't take the mech with him when he reverses time.
Once he got home, he locked up his house. Then he focused on digesting the cloudy dates.
When he bought the cloudy dates in the market, he had placed them in his energy well. So he saw them floating around the transparent liquid when he focused on his energy well.
He first directed Fenrir to swallow a cloudy date. After Fenrir was able to eat it and digest it, it was ordered to swallow more.
Fenrir ate six more cloudy dates before it stopped. No matter how Loki urged it, it couldn't eat anymore. Apparently, it had reached its limit.
In order to increase its limit, Loki ordered Fenrir to eat the three Branch Metacs that he bought earlier. Unfortunately, Fenrir wasn't interested in them. No amount of urging could change Fenrir's mind.
This made Loki say, "No wonder I didn't feel any urge to devour these Metac when I saw them, but I always want to devour Loki's Metac even though I can't see it with my eyes. There must be something special about Core Metacs that Fenrir covets."
He already knew that Core Metacs were special. He just didn't know that their specialness had also made the exclusive diet of Fenrir.
It wasn't until he realized that he was forcing the usually hungry Fenrir to eat something that he understood the importance of Core Metacs.
After coming to this conclusion, he said, "Since I can only use Core Metacs to gain more energy chambers, I guess I will have to find a way to get all the Core Metacs of the five pathways. Then we will see how much Fenrir can take from there."
With his job done, he decided to go to sleep. This time, he didn't have anything to wish for before he fell asleep. His mind was at peace, and he was content with what he had.
Meanwhile, something monumental was going on in the usually silent night. Just outside the gate to the lodging area, someone was confronting Muni.
Muni had just come out of the gate and wanted to rush into the lodging area, but he couldn't do so because this man was blocking his way.
The man in question was also wearing the same uniform as Muni. This meant that the three of them were equal in terms of cultivation. So the man had to be taken seriously.
Muni frowned and asked him, "What do you want?"
The man smiled a harmless smile as he said, "I just came for a stroll. I was reminiscing about the time I spent here, so I thought I would come check out my old stomping grounds. Why don't you chat with me for a while? I assure you that it will be worth your time."
After the man finished speaking, he threw a pouch to Muni. The pouch contained energy stones, and by the looks of it, there were a lot of energy stones.
Muni was able to estimate that there were 10,000 energy stones in the pouch. This kind of money is enough for him to buy a top-notch rank 3 Metac.
The bribe made him relax his guarded stance and sigh in relief. But he was still confused, so he said, "He is just a slave. Why would you spend so much to secure the life of one slave?"
The man chuckled before saying, "You may be right. But you may also be wrong. Either way, we can't allow him to continue to grow stronger. So we'll consider it an investment."
Muni realized something from the man's words, so he said solemnly, "This must be because of all the money he earned earlier."
The man didn't deny it. He nodded in agreement and said, "It has something to do with it. The fact that he earned so much money and bought so many cloudy dates is already bad enough, but it is his incredible luck that made the old man at home decide that we must cut off his path now."
"Loki has always been a lucky slave. He survived against all odds despite being born prematurely. He survived as a child of 5 years old without a mother or a father. He survived the fighting pits despite being much younger and weaker than his opponents. He also managed to break the slave shackles and escape."
"Then he came here and won 80,000 energy stones just one day into the initiation program. Do you realize how unlikely his winnings were? I'll tell you."
"We investigated and learned that he won with odds of 2, 5, 8, and 10. The chances of winning those four games in a row were 1 in 800. It should have been impossible to win like that, but he did. What kind of luck do you think that is?"