Ryan frowned when he heard those names. Doppelgangers were basically a monster than can transform into their enemies… Ryan was pretty sure that such skill was the low-level version of whatever skill the dungeon system uses to make copies of the bosses.

"Doppelgangers are fake copies of yourself, they consume a lot of mana to exist, but since they don't have a physical form, they can keep attacking as long as you have mana," Femradiel said.

"I don't think that fits my style, I already consume too much mana on my own," Ryan said.

"While increasing the output of my attacks seems interesting, there is no meaning if I can't maintain it for more than a few seconds."

"That is true, but I was thinking of making a doppelganger of myself, I have a lot of mana stored, after all. While that will cost me a lot, it is a skill I truly want to level up and one day, master."

"Did you really give up on recovering your body?" Ryan asked.

"No, but I can't see the need to have one constantly now," Femradiel said. "Just be able to move around now and then and fight in situations like this is enough for me, but I guess you have a point, if you are willing to let me fight alongside you more often, we can use the second option and I can assume the form of a familiar."

"What are the differences between a familiar, a summoned monster, and a tamed one?" Ryan asked.

"Basically, familiars are special creatures that are linked to your soul, just like me when we made the contract," Femradiel explained. "However, only special creatures can become familiars and you can't use any skill to make them join you. They have to offer themselves to become your familiar. You can think of them as Pokémon, when you need them for battle, you can summon them without consuming your mana and whenever they obtain will be yours. When they aren't needed to fight, they can join your spirit, and there they can recover their strength two times faster."

"Why do you know about Pokémon?" Ryan frowned.

That sounded pretty neat, but Ryan thought only dragons could make pacts with humans… it was also weird that only certain creatures could become familiars. Why was that the case? Which were the requirements?

"Another good thing of the familiars is that you can have as many as you want," Femradiel added. "Since I know the process on how to create a proper magic body, I can split my strength into several parts and then become multiple familiars."

"That sounds way too useful…" Ryan frowned. "What about your real body?"

"The familiars will become my new body, if I wish for it, I can fuse them and then recover my old body, once the familiars become strong enough," Femradiel replied. "Still, knowing you, you won't accept that, since you are so fearful of betrayals."

"Not at all, I am not worried about betrayals," Ryan shrugged. "I concluded that worrying endlessly is a waste of time. If someone betrays me and try to kill me, I just have to kill they first, end of the story. If the betrayal happens in a minor scale, then I just have to ignore them. I am completely free from such worries now."

While that sounded too good to be true, Ryan seemed so calm that he convinced Femradiel. He truly was thinking that was the absolute truth, and he didn't have to worry about such things. While that was convenient for Femradiel, it also made her think that Ryan took his relationships with others too lightly.

"If you are fine with that, I will need some time to make a proper body that can withstand my power and can be fused with other bodies," Femradiel said. "I will have to focus, so keep an eye on your surroundings."

Although letting Femradiel fight alongside him has become a normal occurrence, Ryan couldn't help but wonder when things changed. After all, he didn't want to receive help from anyone while fighting. It was probably because sometimes he didn't have a choice in the matter, like this time where Haruna and her soldiers decided to join Ryan to exterminate the monsters that took over their country. In the end, he couldn't say no since the destiny of their homeland was hanging in the balance. So, Ryan decided to make Femradiel have some opportunities to fight since she has been quite helpful as of late.

In any case, Ryan resumed his crossbow creation, and after crafting the first ten, he enchanted them the golems' spirits. Only after that, he gave the weapons to Haruna and some other survivors.

"Try to hit Furball with it," Ryan said.

"Are you sure?" Haruna asked, visibly troubled.

"Just don't aim at his face, if you do, you will die by my hands," Ryan said. "If you guys hit any other part of his body, not even a scratch will be left behind."

After hearing Ryan's words, naturally, the survivors hesitated. However, Haruna decided to take the lead and attack Furball. Just as Ryan said, the bolt didn't even leave a mark behind. As for Furball, he only lost a single point of health. Since he had more than three thousand, the damage was laughable.

Others joined Haruna and soon learned some archery skills and level them up since Furball was much stronger than them. However, they didn't get even close to scratching. While no one was looking, Ryan also cast Protect on his partner, and that increased Furball's endurance even more.

To motivate Haruna and the others, even more, Ryan used the free status points that Furball had and increased his recovery and endurance. While Ryan was doing that with the excuse to motivate the survivors, deep down, Ryan was laughing. That was refreshing, and it was precisely the thing he needed before an important battle. While the pile of bolts was increasing, Ryan thought he would be able to reuse them, but unfortunately, for some reason, he failed at using or even reforging them since the tips had been bent upon the impact.