"Ughh..." Lyn groaned as she sat up.
"Are you done?" Reed asked, sitting at a table with a sheet of paper in front of him. "If you are, come here and sign this contract."
She grumbled as she got on her feet and walked over to him.
He turned the page in front of him around and offered her a pen.
She took it and read the contract.
It was quite straightforward.
Neither of them would purposefully kill each other unless the contract was broken.
Neither of them would be allowed to spread any information about the other that was agreed to be kept secret unless the benefits gained from revealing it outweighed the disadvantages.
Avalyn would have to inform Reed before she signed any contracts.
Reed would supply Avalyn with equipment as long as she kept listening to his orders and followed any schedule he gave her.
Both of them would inform the other if they became aware of any threats toward them.
Avalyn would inform Reed if she became aware of any conspiracy involving him.
The contract will be broken if they have not made contact for a year, or they both come to an agreement, or if one of them sacrifices everything they gained from the other, or if one of them dies.
She read through the contract and looked at his sign at the bottom, then she looked up at him, a questioning look on her face.
"So what's all of this?" She asked Reed.
"You know exactly what all of this is."
"Isn't it unfair towards me?"
"It is."
She clicked her tongue at his nonchalant response.
She read through the contract once more just in case she missed any thing.
She placed the paper on the table and sighed it.
"Now what?"
Reed gestured towards the paper with his head, and she looked back at it to see it dissipate in the air as she felt something connect with her mind.
A moment later, the feeling disappeared, but she could feel the contract in her mind.
"That's interesting."
She said.
"Tier 5 contract, you would need to be at least Tier 6 and a specialist in these things to break it without any consequences."
She nodded. "But why all of a sudden?" She asked curiously.
"It would get annoying to keep my abilities from you, and this way you get to know exactly what I am capable of, which gives you more incentive to stay on my good side."
"Follow me, I will tell you what you must keep secret while I lead to the things I have been working on."
Reed led her through the trees towards his hidden underground base.
By the time they had reached the entrance, Lyn was quite shocked by all that she had heard.
"In conclusion, you are overpowered." She said as they came to a stop.
"Overpowered?" Reed had heard this word before, but not recently. He rubbed his chin as he thought about how it applied to him. "Given enough time, yes, but not if I'm put on the spot without my equipment."
"Most of my power resides in my equipment, I hope you won't forget that."
"Right. Item creation." She said as she watched the ground open up.
Reed tossed her a flashlight as he started descending the stairs.
She looked at the flashlight in her hands, she didn't turn it on as she activated her own eye ability and walked down the stairs behind him.
A moment later, she shouted as her night vision was assaulted by a blinding flash of light.
She hurriedly shut it off and looked at Reed with an accusing glare.
"I gave you something to use, but you decided not to use it."
"But... How clearly could you see the stairs?" He asked.
"Clear as day, why?" Hearing this response, Reed put on a thoughtful face.
"That's not how night vision works, it works by amplifying the light already there, so it's useless when there is no light, and there was no light until I flicked the switch."
"That means that my night vision is different somehow, right?"
"Hmm."
He walked to the right and opened the door.
Lyn followed him.
On one side of the room was a table with dozens of machines surrounding it, with a giant screen mounted on a wall.
On the other side were dozens of small canisters filled with various unknown liquids standing on a table, none of them labeled.
Reed paid no attention to any of this, he just walked to the other side of the room and opened another door.
This room seemed to be bare, at least until Reed pressed his hand on a part of the wall indistinguishable from any other part, and the room shifted.
The walls opened and parts of the floor slid open as tables rose from under them.
A few seconds later, Lyn whistled as she looked at the veritable arsenal of equipment in the room.
"Would you look at all that! How did you make all of this?"
Reed told her that Item creation took a lot of mana, so she was already wondering how he made all the things she had seen in the other rooms, but this was way more than what she had expected.
"One moment." Reed held up a finger as he closed his eyes.
The next moment, his outfit changed.
He had been wearing generic clothing with some armor on, but all of that disappeared, and what took its place was something out of a sci-fi movie.
Lyn looked at the extremely bulky suit that Reed had put on, it looked like it would be able to tank a hundred rockets to its face, but it didn't explain what she wanted to know.
"This is my energy suit, it has 12 self-replenishing batteries in it, I can divert that power into me to regain any mana I expend almost instantly."
Reed looked down at Lyn from underneath his helmet, a single glowing blue line looking into her eyes, and he could see she understood what this meant.
He chuckled.
"It also has built-in mana shield and thrusters, so it works for battle as well. As long as I have enough mental and physical energy, this suit works."
He held up a hand as the mana in the suit started flowing.
A blue glow appeared in the air above his palm and started to grow and change its shape.
This continued for a few moments before the glow disappeared and the newly created object showed its appearance to the world.
It was a meter tall and looked like a miniature version of the suit he was wearing.
"It is fully functional, and that took thirty times the amount of mana I possess without the suit."
Reed looked as Lyn prodded at the suit that was less than half the size of the one he was wearing.
"Now then." He said, breaking her out of her stupor.
"Time to get you some gear."