Charles's party pressed onward.
At first, they still ran into bandits often along the way. Yet every time, Charles suffered no losses. On the contrary, the number of men under his command kept growing.
At the beginning, Charles had only kept humans.
But after several encounters in a row, he realized a problem.
Keeping only humans did not fit the developmental nature of the Chaotic Lands.
Even the local half-elf lords could no longer keep their forces limited to humans and half-elf soldiers.
This was also a local characteristic.
Past Confluence City, deeper into the Avenor Elven Court, the forces under those half-elf lords were almost entirely made up of half-elves and humans.
But before Confluence City, the situation was precisely the opposite. The deeper one went into the Chaotic Lands, the more mixed the races of the soldiers became.
Although every half-elf lord wanted an elite force composed entirely of half-elves, the number of half-elves could not be squandered so freely.
The deeper they went into the Chaotic Lands, the more frequent the battles, the greater the casualties, and the more soldiers they needed.
Humans, orcs, gnolls, and even Goblins would become their cannon fodder.
The half-elf forces served as elites and generally would not take the initiative to attack. Instead, the cannon-fodder troops were constantly expended against one another.
It could be said that beside every castle held by half-elf lords in the Chaotic Lands lay the buried bones of countless members of other races.
At first, Charles had only a few people under him, but the farther they went, the more his party expanded.
By the time he had over a hundred men, it already counted as a complete mercenary company.
Humans made up roughly one-third of this company. The rest were hobgoblins, gnolls, and a small