The Noldo Elves were not easy to capture.
Though they could not use magic, their archery and martial skills had been honed to terrifying heights over hundreds or even thousands of years. Almost every Noldo Elf was a top-tier warrior.
Even the Noldo maidens who looked like young girls were all remarkably skilled forest rangers—they might all be over a hundred years old, yet they retained the youthful appearance of maidens for centuries.
On open plains, humans might be able to overwhelm the relatively few Noldo Elves with massive numbers of cavalry.
But in vast primeval forests, cavalry was useless, while the Noldo Elves' powerful archery and ghostlike movements were nearly impossible to resist.
Slave-catching parties died in droves within the forest, becoming fertilizer for Long River Forest. Its flora and fauna grew ever more luxuriant, while the Noldo Elves hid themselves even deeper.
After that, human kingdoms repeatedly assembled large armies in an attempt to sweep through Long River Forest, but every expedition was still wiped out without a trace, leaving behind not even bones.
The Noldo Elves' attitude toward humans became extremely hostile from then on.
They began actively attacking any human who appeared in Long River Forest. Anyone daring to enter it who encountered Noldo Elves would almost invariably be silently shot dead.
After claiming countless lives, this forest, even more vast than the territory of Long River Town, became forbidden ground for humans. Unless one possessed a certain scale of armed force, no one dared pass through it.
Thus, Long River Forest was now also called Noldo Forest.
The name actually represented a kind of human compromise and retreat—an acknowledgment that the Noldo had occupied this vast forest.
But some human desires could not be changed.
Even now, elven slaves remained expensive goods that were sought