However, his good mood took a hit when he got outside and sensed someone watching him. Actually, he sensed two people watching him.
One of the people he sensed watching him was Jim. This didn’t surprise him, and he had gotten used to it. So it was the second person watching him that caused his mood to plummet significantly.
The second person watching him was a golden man. The golden was standing still as part of a group of mannequins used to display clothes in front of a boutique.
If the golden man hadn’t been looking at him and if he hadn’t passed by it, he wouldn’t have noticed it at all. But once he noticed it, he realized that he had seen this same kind of golden man before.
He didn’t do anything, though. He acted as if he hadn’t noticed anything and continued on his way.
He didn’t even quicken his pace. He was as leisurely as ever.
His steps took him to the central market, where he could buy the rank Metacs that he needed. When he found a shop to buy rank 4 Metacs, and he mentioned his need for Cloudy Date Metac, the shopkeeper told him some bad news.
The shopkeeper was a skinny man with a perpetual, large, amicable smile on his face. He smiled as he shook his head, saying, "I’m sorry to say that there are no rank 4 Cloudy Date Metacs."
To which Loki hurriedly shook his head and said, "The Cloudy Date Metacs I want are rank 3. Only the Branch Metacs need to be rank 4."
This made the smiling shopkeeper sigh in relief and say, "In that case, I have good news for you. The rank 3 Cloudy Dates Metacs that you want are in stock."
Loki was relieved to hear this. But he was still curious, so he asked, "What happened to rank 4 Cloudy Dates Metacs, though? Are they that rare, or did a big customer buy everything in stock?"
In reply, the shopkeeper chuckled and said, "Dear customer, you might not know this, but rank 4 Cloudy Dates Metacs are very rare. I personally have only heard them being available in auction houses, and even then, there was only one of them available this whole year."
Loki’s eyes went wide when he heard this. He said in disbelief, "Only one in one year? Are rank 4 cultivators so rare?"
Then he remembered something which made him exclaim, saying, "Oh. Is that why I have never seen rank 4 slaves in the city?"
The shopkeeper nodded and said, "The scarcity of rank 4 slaves indeed has a common cause with the scarcity of rank 3 slaves. The minimum requirement to advance to rank 4 is a saturation rate of 300%. This requires a minimum talent of 50 units."
"If you participated in the initiation program, I’m sure that you remember your days there. So you should be able to tell how rare people with 50 units of potential are."
In reply, Loki laughed and said, "Who can forget the days they spent in the initiation program?"
Then he became serious as he said, "But you’re right. Out of 100 of us, there were only 3 people with a potential of 50 units."
The shopkeeper continued to smile as he said, "See? Just 3%. Even if people find ways to increase their talent, and this doubles the number of people with a potential of 50 points, there will only be 6 out of 100 people who are qualified to advance to rank 4."
Then he shook his head and said, "And that’s if they can survive past rank 3. Many talented people die in rank 3, while for untalented people, rank 3 will be their highest limit in this life."
This mention of people dying at rank 3 piqued Loki’s interest. So he sighed and said, "There is just no way out. Either you don’t have talent, or you have talent, and people use you as raw materials for their cultivation."
He said what he said because he was actually fishing. He doesn’t really know exactly what’s killing people at rank 3.
He didn’t ask directly why people were dying at rank 3 because he didn’t want to come off as being ignorant. So what he did was to say something remotely correct and wait for a confirmation of his suspicions or a correction that would lead him in the right direction.
At this point, the shop had begun to pack the Branch Metacs that he asked for into a bag. The Branch Metacs were in crystal balls for protection, and the shopkeeper was being very careful handling them. But he could still talk while doing so.
He said to Loki while being busy with his hands, "That’s the way of the world. The strong get stronger by preying on the weak, while the weak can only stay weak or be eaten."
"The only consolation is that none of them will live longer than 120 years if they don’t advance to rank 6 and become divine beings. The fact that most of them will live as long as we and die just like we do helps me to cope with this unfair world."
Loki laughed in response. But inwardly, his heart was not as calm as his face.
After getting confirmation of his suspicions, he thought to himself, "It seems the only people I have to be worried about are the people who want to use me as raw materials. There doesn’t seem to be a widespread danger that targets rank 3 cultivators."
"Then again, this shopkeeper is only rank 3. What he can know is limited. The only thing that I can be sure of is that there is no publicly acknowledged entity or problem that targets rank 3 cultivators."
Then he remembered Muni’s situation, which made him chuckle inwardly and say, "It seems Muni had even more reasons for raising his talent to 50 units. I might have underestimated him."