You can still fight looters and roaming bandits in the Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord campaign, but it can get boring exceptionally quickly. A great way to disrupt this boredom is to become a mercenary for a particular faction in the game. If you see a faction you want to ally with and have a good relationship with, becoming a mercenary is a great way to do that, and you win decent gold, as well as fame, to do so.
You will first need to have become a level 1 clan. You can do this by progressing through the game's main quest. Once you have a level 1 clan, you are ready to research the factions you want to work with. However, you cannot find a random faction caravan. What you need to do is find a notable figure from that faction. Most of the time, they roam the world with a large army by their side. You can easily select them by holding the Alt-Left button while you mount your horse, and when you reach them you can talk to their leader.
When you talk to your boss, you want to say, "There's something I'd like to discuss." After that you want to say, "I would like to enter the service of", and the end of the sentence should have any ruler who oversees that NPC or you have the option to offer your sword to that person if it's she. control the faction. After completing the conversation, you can now see that all members of that faction and their towns now have a green line around their names to show that you are allied with them. All enemy factions and their cities they are at war with now have a red outline. You can freely raid red territories and their villages to earn extra gold and fame. Each battle you participate in gives you 15 denars. You keep all the loot and gold you get from this battle.
Mercenary contracts have no end there. If you want to finish serving for this faction, you must find another leader of this faction and declare that you want to leave their service. You probably want to do this if you need a break from rebuilding your army, or if you want to focus on restoring your lands and focusing on more social activities, especially if that faction is in the midst of a war.
