The strength of the Tree Herder organization's members certainly varied widely. Chang Fengle's recruitment requirements were outrageously lax.
Even if your strength had declined, even if excessive drinking and womanizing had turned you into a loafer or a thug, as long as you had once been a Level 1 Warrior and had some combat experience, you could join the Tree Herders.
Once you joined, however, you had to work. The Tree Herders did not support idlers.
With such low requirements and such an accommodating approach to recruitment, the Tree Herders' numbers had grown explosively.
And this Black Tide demonstrated the advantage of having so many members.
Kill Oddities in exchange for fruit.
That had become the Tree Herders' guiding principle. So during the Black Tide, when they had to fight anyway, even the Tree Herders who usually lazed around charged at the Oddities with battle cries.
Chang Fengle led the charge. He understood the importance of morale.
More importantly, he knew that the Oddities here were not particularly strong. With his abilities, he could handle them with ease.
He would not die.
"Brothers, charge with me!"
"Kill!"
Chang Fengle shot down one Oddity after another. If any got close, he chopped them down with a backhand slash.
Lightning wreathed the machete in his hand. It looked to be of good quality.
The entire Tree Herder force also had matching weapons and equipment. Nearly three hundred people charging together made quite an imposing sight.
In their first clash, the Tree Herders routed the Oddities surrounding the Polluters.
Chang Fengle howled as he charged toward the crowd. After cleaving a Malformed-Type Oddity to death with his lightning-infused blade, he strode up to Bai Jing.
"Bai Jing, why didn't you ask a fellow townsman when you ran into trouble? We're from the same