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Bandit dens and outposts always guarantee one slave similar to those appearing in the slave market, additional slaves can be gotten from the random free a prisoner event in these dungeons as well.  Goblins can be can captured from a random event in the goblin dens.  Fairies and I think dryads can be recruited or captured from a random event in groves and I think it also spawns in ancient jungles but I'm not sure.  Ancient jungles also host the elven ambush random event which gives you a captured elf or wild elf.  I don't think I've ever gotten a dark elf from one of those.

I find that about 30% of the time you can just buy a slave and turn them in for a profit.  Even at higher quest difficulties you are still making money off them while you train them so I'd say it's worth it as long as training them is something you like doing in the first place.  Most of the time the quests are doable in a week and you can use captured bandits making the cost of the servant what you can sell them for rather than what you buy them for.  The ones that really aren't worth it are the 5 day services with stringent requirements. 

It's 8 mat.  Starting is 15 so that's more than a 50% increase.  With the starting staff it's still about 20%.  There aren't many ways to increase mat so it's pretty significant.  Fairies also get a 25 evasion bonus which more than balances out the hit point loss given how evasion works in this game.  Starting enemies have about 90 hit so with rouge and thief fairies have a 45 evasion or 55% evade chance compared to a 20 evasion or 70% evade chance causing the fairy to take about 20% less damage than the elf while having 77% of the hp.  20% less damage is the equivalent of 25% more hp.  This ratio will only favor the fairy more as the game goes on and evasion increases.  A fully kited out fairy has more evasion than  any monster's base hit rendering the question of hp largely moot.  Really tho even in the early game the extra magic attack with the master's lust relief buff makes the difference between one-hitting most bandit den and goblin den enemies before they  can go with entangle and taking a bunch of damage from half dead enemies which largely renders hp moot.

edit*  Apparently I was only looking at elf rather than dark elf which is a lot better.  The fairy is still the stronger caster as evasion is just better than having more hp, especially when you take things like healing and status aliments into account.

First off these are just my opinion on things and don't necessarily lead to the most fun, also they just apply to the game as it is now.

1.  You should always aim to have combat characters be solo clear bad-asses that don't rely on mana to do their thing.  Characters capable of clearing dungeons by themselves level much faster and can power-level non-combat characters more efficiently leading to far faster production growth.  Mana reliance tends to lead to long downtimes or unsustainable crystal use.

2. The most important ability to secure early on is an all enemy damage source so the best combat races tend to be orc and fairy.  Berserker gets a physical all enemy earth attack and druid gets a magical all enemy earth attack, neither requires mana.  Other races get druid but only fairies get +8 mattack so they always do more damage for the same equipment and classes. 

3. An often overlooked combat class is succubus.  They can drain other's lust to give themselves a two day buff worth 15% to attack and mattack.  This is huge.

4. The best healer is attendant.  Bandages scale with target health and don't require mana.  The ability to heal and attack is also important since if you take a whole round healing your effective healing is reduced by the amount of damage you take that round.  This is much less important in multi-member parties but even then dedicated healers should use bandages when they can to conserve mana.  Cloth is much cheaper and easier to get than energy crystals.

Sex traits can be activated or deactivated in character info under food and details, a box in the lower left of the screen with a heart and drumstick.  There does not appear to be a customization lab as of yet although you can give tattoos with the beauty parlor.

Firer bomb does more than twice the base damage of entangle and acid bomb(It's water the description is wrong) does more than triple. Most undead are weak to fire and light and resist pretty much everything else so firebomb will clear an entire line of undead in one hit and finish a battle in two rounds with only half the mobs even attacking whereas entangle can take 3 or four with everything beating on you the whole time.  Fire bomb is mostly useful in crypts and bandit forts(ballistae) whilst acid bomb really come in handy for ancient jungles and fire pits where it can one hit beetles, ifrits, and salamanders. The most profitable dungeon to farm off the bat is usually bandit dens which favor aoe earth attacks but alchemist will make your life a lot easier if you have to kill undead for quests and you are using a caster type.

As for Assasin you can get it before day 21 but it's a serious stretch.  In my other day 14 post the class order for my fairy caster was attendant> apprentice> druid> thief> rouge> alchemist> harlot> succubus> archer> fighter.  The only equipment I gave her was the starting mage staff for siding with mages and that should be fine until you get a lvl 3 alchemist.  I don't recommend using your MC for combat, it's better to kill everything with your free recruit for a number of reasons.  I can go into more depth if you're interested.  Using a single character for combat rather than a larger team will result in a more powerful combat team faster since it's the synergy of many classes that makes you strong and xp is split amongst all participants. It's also handy for power leveling laborers later on for much the same reason. 

My most recent challenge run, initiated elections before first bank payment.

Got real close there, had to finish a third workers quest on day 14 before collectors came.  Fortunately the workers quest doesn't take any time.

My one fairy combat team if you are interested

I have gotten them from bandit leader drops several times and there is one you can recruit in the main story.

Upgrade path was tailor 1 > forge 1. Of course the guide above only covered the first 10 days and involved no main quest beyond siding with workers.  I had 5k gold by day 10 without selling any of my fish so wasn't worried about the bank at all.  After that point I would typically move fighter and worker up to medium to get the second quests asap but I mostly only care about the guild quests to get the classes from fighter and worker guild shops.  If you want to start the elections quickly I suggest moving workers and mages to medium on day 1 and be sure to abandon any unfinished quests on day 6.  If you have ongoing quests you won't get new ones for that guild when the new week comes.  As a variant you can run a fairy mage as your dungeon clearer.  In this case you don't need upgrades at all, just side with mages and equip the staff they give you. Once you get attendant, apprentice, and druid you should be able to finish trouble solving quests and clear bandit dens allowing you to finish all week one quests before week two.  For the mage support quest if your MC has the apprentice class you can bully the sister into just giving you the books.  I've done full story clears as well as full loan payment clears but I don't think I ever did elections before the second payment.  It isn't possible without moving to medium quests and that can be very rng dependent if you can't get a strong combat character up fast.

For a caster I consider alchemist pretty much required for crypts unless you are a dragon knight.  Really the biggest problem with casters is that they need the physical classes for hit dodge and crit just as much as physical types.  I wouldn't consider a caster without taking archer, rogue, and assassin before most of the other magic classes.  I always use attendant for healing.

OK, here we go:

MC: Nereid Hunter. 4 PHY, 4 CHR 5 SEX.  Sex trait: desired.  Likes fish hates whatever.

Day 1: Side with Workers and recruit: Orc Worker, PEON(this is important). 5 GRO, 5 PHY, 4 WIT, 4 CHR, 2 SEX. Sex trait: curious. Likes Fish hates whatever.  Date Orc and train PHY then sex Orc and try to maximize Orc orgasms. Use social skills to up obedience.  Set MC to fish then send Orc to the closest place that has wood, equip workers outfit and axe and set orc to gather rough wood.  Advance time until there is just enough time to bring the orc home then check the shop and buy enough rough wood to make 30 total.  It's no big deal if you have to wait a day to buy the wood but we want to start the tailor on day 3.  You'll also want to secure 5 cloth and 10 health crystals so check the shop daily until you have them. Accept any guild quests and finish any that can be easily finished with shop purchases. Bring the Orc home.

Day 2:  Same as Day one except gather/buy stone until you have 25 then immediately switch MC to upgrading and start tailor.  Remember to use all social skills on Orc including lust relief for xp.

Day 3-14:  Start as normal but send Orc to nearest iron wood site.  They will be gathering iron wood without returning until you have 15.  Once you have 15 iron wood bring orc home to finish upgrading then build a bow using iron wood for both parts then some bandages. At your first level take attendant then archer for your second.  Remember to date sex and social every day you can(you will probably miss a day while gathering iron wood).  You should be done around day 8 at which point you are ready to start solo clearing dungeons with your orc. Finish any combat quests first(remember to use lust relief option 4 now and equip that bow!) then start spamming bandit dens.  After the first dungeon run you should be able to get fighter, berserker, and thief.  You get a free slave at the end of each bandit  dungeon which you will sell unless they are a human with average or better growth either no class or one or more of the following: worker, harlot, watch dog or trainer.  Harlot is optional, really only for the reward with sex skill, but you are looking to recruit 2 humans and get the other 3 skills + foreman eventually on them.  You can use your orc to power level them and MC to build their stats with dates. Gather wood, stone, and iron from the ends of dungeons until you can make a lvl 1 forge then upgrade using your MC. Move MC to fishing whenever they aren't crafting or upgrading.  When you have your production team ready to go send them to a location with mithril and ancient bones and have them each gather one of those. Use watchdog skills to keep obeddiance up and discipline from trainer every day.  Harlots can use reward with sex as available to increase xp gain.

From here on out the game should be pretty easy.  Earthshatter from berserker will demolish  low level dungeons.  Attendant will allow you to heal without using an action as long as you have health crystals and top off with bandages between fights.  I can't stress the importance of attendant enough, the action economy means you don't have to stop killing to heal and bandages scale with your hp rather than matk.  The income from dungeons should more than pay off the bank even if you never touch the main quest and the ability to produce high quality tools from mithril and ancient bones should kick your economy into gear.