At six o'clock in the evening, as agreed upon, the Knight Commander delivered his supplies: three military doctors, twenty-seven homeless mercenaries and militia, ten crates of arrows and ammunition, along with various other miscellaneous equipment and supplies.

After Avi dismissed the cart drivers, who had helped transport the merchants and carts provided by Kees, one of them handed him a note from the Knight Commander.

"A dwarf passed by my camp while transporting goods and asked me to deliver a message to you: he's grateful for settling an old score and considers these items his down payment. If you're still alive after this battle, he wants to hire you to guard his caravan."

"Mercenaries who can fight and keep their word are always welcome, aren't they?" Avi said with a half-joking tone as he handed the note to Airen. "We won't be short of work in the future."

"Another job? Great—ah!" Rafe attempted to jump up in excitement but winced as his freshly bandaged wound tore open, eliciting laughter from the other wounded nearby.

"But it's uncertain whether the herd will attack from our direction. Your Excellency, if I may speak freely: I don't trust these new recruits," Airen said.

"I'll handle that issue," Avi said confidently, knowing he had the assistance of the system. As long as his command and charisma were up to par, he wasn't too worried about controlling the team's morale.

"More importantly, I'm concerned about the equipment," Avi continued. "Most of the newcomers only have leather armor or none at all. You saw the outcome of the last battle; the disparity in armor is too significant."

"It's probably because the orcs attacking us don't have particularly sophisticated equipment. Adequate protection from iron armor should suffice against their weapons," Airen suggested. "I think Your Excellency should consider talking to them first to assess their capabilities."

"Yes, I'll do that later," Avi agreed. "How are your attendants?"

"Two of them are injured, but not severely," Airen replied. "And I noticed that the supplies brought by the dwarf include a lot of musket bullets, which is good news for us."

"The muskets proved effective in the last battle. Currently, our best chance of inflicting significant damage on the minotaurs is with muskets and crossbows. The bows we have are too inferior; they're ineffective against anything with tough skin."

With that, Avi patted Airen's shoulder. "The Vanguard Knights are our special forces, tasked with launching surprise attacks. So, we must remain calm unless absolutely necessary."

"Yes, Your Excellency." Remembering his impatience during the last battle, Airen replied with embarrassment, "I intend to reflect on myself more during meditation afterward, to overcome my impulsive tendencies."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Why so formal..."

"Boss, what should we do next?" Rafe asked. "Those new guys seem pretty strong; do you think they'll be any good?"

"You can spar with them," Avi replied with a smile. "Anyone who can beat Rafe can take his gear and become the captain!"

"Boss, that's not fair! How can I fight when I'm injured?" Rafe protested.

Rafe's outcry sparked laughter throughout the camp. Several new mercenaries had already begun jokingly challenging him to single combat, and surprisingly, Rafe agreed.

Thus, the evening passed in harmony and friendly wrestling among the mercenaries.

As expected, everyone who challenged Rafe was easily knocked down, only a few more experienced ones managed to avoid being knocked out, but they still fell after a few rounds.

"Hey! Even when Rafe is sick, he's still Rafe. Dealing with you guys is a piece of cake!" Rafe boasted.

While the team relaxed and rested, Avi still had to work overtime. He spent half the night using the system to confirm the combat effectiveness of the newly recruited members. Eventually, he found that most of them were still at the level of mercenaries, with a few Imperial Swordsmen of the first tier mixed in, and only two were Greatswordsmen.

"Better than I expected," Avi thought. "I thought that guy would only bring me some militia-level guys, but their combat power is decent."

After that, he began to allocate skill points for several companions. Considering that Manid was seriously injured in the previous battle and was now lying in the tent groaning with his head wrapped in bandages, Avi opened his panel first.

Manid, Level 19, Constitution 12, Agility 10, Intelligence 27, Charisma 10; Skills: Eloquence 2, Knowledge 1, Riding 1, Trade 4, First Aid 1, Surgery 1, Luck 1.

Luck?

Avi immediately clicked on the description of this skill. "This skill can only be obtained congenitally and cannot be upgraded through the system. It can to some extent improve real-life luck, making good things easier to happen and bad things easier to avoid."

"Wow, this seems like an amazing skill. Could Manid's survival through several injuries be related to this?" Avi swiftly operated the panel and found that he also had skills in first aid and surgery, making it difficult to determine why he had survived multiple injuries.

The existence of this skill told Avi that there was still a lot of potential in the system to be explored, but without any prompts, he could only go with the flow, at most paying more attention to prompts from the system in the future.

"If only real life was as easy as using cheat codes and modifiers in games," he couldn't help but sigh. "Real-life games are really damn hard..."

However, Manid's attributes and skill allocation happened to relieve a lot of pressure on Avi in terms of skills, allowing him to invest more skill points in team bonuses, leadership, and even personal abilities.

"With someone responsible for trade and eloquence, I can let him continue to upgrade medical skills later," Avi thought. "First, allocate a few skill points to agility, toughness, and endurance to ensure survival, and then I'll train him as an advisor."

After solving Manid's division of labor issue, Avi felt much more relaxed. He spent some more time assigning the newly recruited members to Rafe's command, and assigned Manid the responsibilities of 'quartermaster' and 'physician' to allow him to leverage his strengths.

Purely operating on the panel was definitely not enough. The next day, Avi pulled Manid from his sleep to the campfire and publicly announced his change in position.

"I didn't expect this guy to have such a trick up his sleeve, he can save lives!" Rafe grabbed Manid's hand and shook it vigorously. "From now on, our lives are in your hands, brother!"

Manid had several wounds on his body, and they cracked open one by one under Rafe's shaking.

"Ah—!"

The poor merchant's screams echoed above the camp.