In response to Loki's complaints, Tommy snorted and said, "Of course it is what you paid for. You wanted a way to upgrade your Telekinesis Metac to rank 2. I gave you a way. It just wasn't the correct way."
"It is not like you asked for the correct way. So I didn't cheat you. You cheated yourself. Next time, be clear about what you want."
"As for that stone, it truly is the material you need to upgrade the Telekinesis Metac. I just didn't give you a lot of it."
"Before you complain, I must remind you that you didn't ask for a particular quantity of the material in the contract. You only asked for the material itself, and I gave it to you. So I didn't cheat you."
As he spoke, he didn't look up from his work. It was clear that he didn't take Loki seriously.
But he stopped what he was doing and looked up when Loki said to him, "Why did you do this? Is it because of the money? If it is only about the money, I assure you that it won't be worth it."
As Loki spoke, he tossed the stone in his hands nonchalantly. His voice was calm, and his face was expressionless. Only his eyes showed any indication of his true emotions, and what Tommy saw in those eyes made him understand that Loki was very serious about his threat.
But this didn't make Tommy cower. Instead, Tommy dropped what he was doing and scoffed at Loki before saying, "Bah. Don't threaten me, boy. I don't know how you knew about the Core Metac of the pathway of forging, but the fact that you don't know how to upgrade it means that no matter what your source of information is, it can't threaten me."
Then he glared at Loki as he said, "As for why I did what I did, it is not only because of the money. It is also because you are on the pathway of forging, which makes you my enemy."
His eyes showed naked intent to kill as he said, "I really want to kill you. At first, I only wanted to make you suffer a loss and give up, but the more you remained calm after I cheated you, the more I realized that something was wrong and the more I wanted to kill you."
But no matter how he glared at Loki, Loki remained calm and continued to toss the stone in his hands nonchalantly.
Loki remained calm as he asked, "So you want to kill me. Why haven't you, yet?"
Tommy replied, "Isn't it because the rules forbid killing you?"
Loki said, "Oh. I see."
Tommy didn't like his indifference at all. This was because Loki's expression made him feel a chill in his heart.
Loki wasn't behaving like a slave who didn't have any backing, so he realized that he might have made a mistake and was beginning to regret what he did. But he refused to back down or show any fear or remorse.
Instead of apologizing, he scoffed and said, "I was hoping that you would get angry and attack me. Then I would be justified in retaliating. Unfortunately for me, you're a weak man in body and mind."
"You were cheated again and again, but you refused to fight for your rights. I guess I shouldn't have expected more from a slave."
Loki ignored his obvious barbs and said, "You can't kill me because it is against the rules. But cheating me is allowed. I wonder why that is the case."
His words made Tommy sneer and say, "I didn't cheat you. You're slandering me."
Loki acted as if he hadn't heard him as he looked into the sky and said, "What I want to know is why you could do this to me while the other shops didn't try to cheat me, even though I had bigger transactions with them."
Tommy continued to sneer as he said, "I guess we will never know."
Then he returned his attention to what he was doing on the workbench. As he did so, he said, "If you don't have any more business, please go away. My place is for serious business only, not wasteful chitchat."
Loki smiled at him with cold, unfeeling eyes as he said, "Aren't you going to try to get me to stay, so that you can fleece me again?"
Tommy ignored him and didn't respond.
This made Loki sigh and say to himself, "Maybe this is why Muni didn't tell us to go and ask others how to advance our Core Metacs. The people who will know how to advance our Core Metacs are probably those on the same pathway as us, so they will be our enemies."
I guess I can only wait for Muni to tell me how to upgrade the Telekinesis Metac. But this was not a waste of time or money. I have learned a lot."
As he was saying this to himself, he had turned away from Tommy and left. Tommy didn't call him back or ask him to stop. But he did watch Loki leave out of the corner of his eye while contemplating what the source of Loki's confidence could be.
A few minutes of walking later, Loki had returned to his lodgings. He began to cultivate immediately he got home.
Actually, what he was doing was truly cultivation. He was just pretending to use the Cloudy Date Metac to cultivate as a normal person would.
The truth is that he had already begun to use the Cloudy Date Metac ever since he left Tommy. After his experience with Tommy, he realized that he was surrounded by enemies and someone like Tommy could become desperate enough to kill him.
If Tommy decides to disregard the rules and kill him, then he would have wasted the Cloudy Date Metac that he bought. So as soon as he left Tommy, he began using the Cloudy Date Metac by feeding them to Fenrir.