Mercy is not just something we receive, it is something we must give. In the Lord's prayer we say "forgive us as we forgive others", this is a constant theme of Jesus' teaching.
Human teaching puts a limit on forgiveness, Jesus puts no limit on forgiveness. Seven times seems a lot to Peter, but Jesus says seventy seven, or seven times seven. The number does not matter, the point is that we are to forgive without limit.
Jesus then gives a parable to illustrate the reason, and to reveal the sad state of the human heart.
A man was hopelessly in debt, so in debt that there was absolutely no possibility of him paying off the debt. So he and his family would be sold in to slavery. The man begged for mercy and the master took pity on him. When we are in deep trouble we plead for mercy, whether it be from God or from men. This is a typical human reaction.
The servant went off, but then one of his fellow servants owed him a hundred denarii. Now I have heard this equated to owing a few pounds. Teachings on this parable based on that sort of thinking are rubbish. This was not a "few quid", it was not a trivial amount. Compared to the gold that the servant owed it was a very small amount, but it was by no means trivial. A denarii was a days wage. So we are talking about 100 days wages. So, if we express this in terms of the minimum wage we are talking about something not far short of £5000.
This puts the parable in much better context. The amount the servant was owed was highly significant, it was nothing like the amount he had been forgiven, but it mattered. If you were going to gain or lose £5000 it would make a difference to you! We need to forgive significant offences. The things we have to forgive are significant, but however much we forgive, God has forgiven us much, much more.
The man was thrown in jail and tortured. Then Jesus closes by saying that this is how our Father in Heaven will treat us if we are not merciful. Now some may want to get in to debates about whether or not we can lose our salvation. This is not the point of the parable, the clear message is that we must be merciful, so we should resolve to be merciful.
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