Once I had about fifty furies, I cleared the rest of the map using only one unit of furies, gradually increasing their number to 200. The exception was the last battle against the ents. I was surprised because if the enemy had consisted of undead, I wouldn't have stood a chance due to their vampirism.
At the beginning, I only took money from the chests because I was leveling up skills from the Archild's educational center, which allowed me to reach the level for full skill upgrades faster. Plus, I didn't worry about getting a useless skill from the great and terrible random number generator.
When I arrived in Winded, I found out what kind of trees grew nearby and told the mayor of Archild. He gave me a good amount of gold – either 30,000 or 50,000, I don't remember. From Winded, I sailed the sea, collected chests, and especially ships – about 5,000 per ship. So, I had plenty of money.