Result

Reed held Lyn's arm steady as streams of mana emerged from his other palm and went into it.

With his [Celestial vision] active, Reed could see the damage he had done to her arm as his mana strings wrapped around her bones to make them move for better healing.

He glanced at his patient's face, to see that she was looking with wonder at the strings.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, seeing no expression of discomfort on her face.

She shook her head.

"No."

He turned back to her arm and continued his work.

Once he was done moving her displaced bones, he started channeling his healing spell.

The strings turned from blue to a soft green, and Reed had a clear view of the healing process.

He watched in fascination as her bones sealed the gap between them in moments, restoring her arm to its previous state easily, without any after-effects whatsoever.

Avalyn could not see it, but there was a sparkle in his eyes as he witnessed the magic of healing take effect. 

"Done." Reed said and let go of her arm.

She flinched, but relaxed when the pain didn't come.

"Woah..." She examined her arm, her expression changing as she pressed her forearm with her other palm.

"Now then, any other pains I should know about?" Reed asked her if there were any injuries that he should know about in case he had damaged anything important. 

"That's it." She got up from her position against the tree she was leaning on, dusted herself, and looked at Reed.

"That wasn't real ATLAS armor, was it?"

Reed had taken off his armor and was now dressed in simple clothing.

"No way my magic is that powerful." She waited for an answer, and she received it.

Reed let out a chuckle before responding.

"No, it wasn't." He looked at Lyn who huffed. "I don't know the exact composition of the armor, and I don't really have a reason to try and find out. That was made from a decently strong material I conjured."

"You made the armor?" Lyn was surprised, and a little excited.

Reed waved off her question.

"That's for later. Now, it's nearing time for lunch, and I for one, am quite hungry."

With that said, they collected Lyn's weapons scattered around the field and prepared to leave.

"Here." Reed handed a small glass vial to her.

"A test tube? What's in it?" She asked, looking at the liquid blue contents of the item.

"Energy restoration potion, Tier 3. Bottoms up."

Despite Reed telling her to drink, she looked it over and asked a question first.

"I've seen some potions, they cost at least 10 gold for the weaker ones. How much did this cost?"

"One hundred."

She blinked in surprise, then held it out to him.

"That's too expensive, save it for urgencies."

"Unnecessary, I have a dozen more." 

She stood in place, flabbergasted.

"A dozen?" She looked at Reed. "Where did you get all that money?"

Reed paused, and looked at her in silence.

A moment passed with the two of them silently making eye contact.

As Avalyn was about to break the silence, Reed's face changed, startling her.

A grin split apart his face as far as it could go, as he chuckled darkly.

"Let me put it this way."

He pulled out a gold coin and held it up for her to see.

Then he opened his other palm and Lyn watched in silence as another identical coin formed on it.

"I can just make more money."

"Woooaaahh... How did you do that?"

"I will keep that a secret for now. Just know that I can make a lot of things using just mana, but not everything."

Lyn remained quiet after that for a few minutes as they walked in silence, before she broke it.

"Hey." She called out to Reed.

"Yes?"

"What's my score?" She asked, and Reed could feel her emotions.

'She anxious, she wants to know how she did in my eyes, what my attitude is towards her, and... if I will throw her away if the need arises.'

He chuckled and her brows furrowed.

"What so funny?" She felt uncomfortable hearing that.

"Before any misunderstandings arise, let me clarify that I was taking it VERY, VERY, easy on you."

He heavily emphasized the 'veries', just to get the point across.

"If you don't believe me we will fight again later, and I won't use any armor."

Lyn nodded and Reed started to recite her abilities.

"Let's see, during the fight with my puppet, you attacked randomly and without preparation, showing your lack of experience."

She nodded and was about to speak when Reed continued.

"Your aim with firearms and projectiles is horrible."

Reed did not need to look at her to know that she was gritting her teeth.

"You have no idea what you are supposed to do with your legs in a fight."

"You have made far too little progress in your magic, even though you had more than a month to experiment."

"You don't know how to receive attacks to minimize damage."

With each point that he made, he could feel that she grew more and more distant from him.

"But..."

That single word kindled her dwindling hope, causing her to look at his back as he stopped walking.

"You managed to catch me off guard by imbuing the spear with wind mana and applying a mana cover over it to mask it, tricking me and laying the foundation for your wind blade, showing your great ability to adapt to the situation."

The hope turned to relief, then to gratification as he continued.

"You managed to overcome your fear and transform it into anger, moving you away from despair and giving you the ability to continue the fight, even if it was reckless."

"You managed to move even with the pain that I had inflicted upon you, and did not stop even with a broken arm."

"And, most importantly, you were decisive, and not afraid to fight at full power, an important quality."

"Overall, you are quite weak at the moment, but with some time and guidance, you will grow to great heights."

Reed turned around and smiled at her.

"You pass with flying colors."

He paused for a moment to let her digest the news.

"Do you have any questions?"

She shook her head.

"Then let's go."

Reed turned back and started walking, with Lyn moving to catch up with him.