The greatest danger in the underground world came from the darkness. This was common knowledge, and because of it, many of the races living underground had evolved abilities such as darkvision and infrared vision. Even those without such abilities at least had skills like Blind Fighting. Otherwise, it was practically impossible to take a single step in the underground world.
This was even more true of the rivers and waterways that crisscrossed the underground world. Even with the abilities mentioned above, people still had no way to deal with those waters. The darkness there had already exceeded the limits of their abilities.
Landen currently had no way to dispel the seemingly bottomless darkness of the Blackwater River, so for now, he could only develop it in a limited fashion.
Of course, this certainly did not satisfy him. In fact, he had already begun thinking about it as soon as he set his sights on the Blackwater River. By the time he discussed it openly with Avina and the others, he already had a complete plan.
However, this plan had one problem: population.
Landen had recruited the Hobgoblins and Lizardfolk and captured dozens of Bear Hobgoblins. By now, all his subjects had gathered in Farview Town, yet even added together, they only barely reached a certain number, including the soldiers. At that population, carrying out his plan would take at least ten years.
Landen was unwilling to wait that long, so after deciding to develop the Blackwater River, he also began thinking of ways to acquire more people.
The Yumaas Region was vast, but it had few creatures. Its handful of intelligent races had all already come under Landen's command. The rest were beasts like Rock Lizards. Capturing dozens of them as beasts of burden was fine, but they were not