Elara spent the past few days not only organizing the skill books needed by Plumera Kingdom, but also occasionally sinking deep into her consciousness to check on the transparent glowing tree that had changed since the "Ruins of the Gods."
Whenever Elara activated a divine rune carved with a totem, hoping the totem might be a key to it, she always received a mysterious power from within the rune.
Back when she was deep in the Ruins of the Gods, she was too busy avoiding the struggles between the major powers to examine it closely. Later, she marched north to wage war and again had no time. Only after returning to Plumera Kingdom did she finally get the chance to observe the tree that had grown much larger.
Yes, the tree had grown significantly.
Each time Elara activated a rune and received its power, that power seemed to flow into this tree within her consciousness, making it grow bigger and sprout more glowing branches. Each semi-transparent glowing branch had a radiant fruit hanging from it.
Elara counted them, and the number of fruits matched the number of runes she had activated. Inside each fruit was a strange energy.
That energy matched the divine gifts granted by the runes after activation.
For example, the fruit connected to the rune that gave her [Absolute Defense Silk Robe] contained a small energy version of the Silk Robe. The fruit linked to [Absolute Barrier] contained a small, semi-transparent version of that ability too.
The divine gifts and their powers from each rune she had opened seemed to be copied onto this glowing tree in her mind.
Moreover, each time a fruit matured, it dropped a translucent sheet of paper.
Elara had already collected and examined these papers, discovering they were all maps with faint outlines of mountains and rivers.
However, after studying them for a while, she realized they weren't separate maps but were fragments of one large map.
Once she discovered that, Elara spent time trying to piece them together in her mind, but because she had opened so few divine runes, there weren't enough fruits or map fragments. No matter how hard she tried, she still couldn't tell where the map was pointing to.
From past experience, Elara regretfully realized that divine gifts only appeared in a few special runes, and those belonged mostly to the higher-level divine gifts. Middle-level or lower divine gifts did not have runes.
But even middle-level gifts were treasures fought over by the major powers in this world. Higher-level ones were usually the core treasures of top-tier factions. How could she obtain them so easily?
After spending a long time trying to piece the fragments together without success, Elara could only temporarily give up.
She decided to wait until she acquired more high-level divine gifts in the future.
After observing the changes in the glowing tree in her mind, Elara spent the next few days continuing to train the children while also summoning the top officials and technical experts from each department based on her organized list. She began a series of technical improvement training sessions.
Since there were so many new techniques to teach, Elara was busy for more than ten days, working from morning to night, moving between departments and meetings. It was only after ten days that she finally completed the first round of teaching for each group.
Even though those who passed the exams to become officials were all talented, most of what Elara introduced were technologies never before seen in this ancient world. Many basic concepts were still missing, so she had to teach them from the ground up.
Though the initial meetings were done, it would still take time for everyone to fully understand, learn, and absorb these upgraded innovations.
Fortunately, during these ten days, the Department of Examinations had already worked with major ministries and successfully held the second national exam in Plumera City.
This time, far more talented individuals emerged compared to the first exam.
The newly added elite talents were like fresh spring water flowing into a desert, greatly relieving the shortage of officials in various departments of Plumera Kingdom's court.
Because of the upgrade and reforms initiated by Elara, a large number of older craftsmen and officials could finally make time to carefully study and learn the new technologies after the influx of new officials.
The total number of participants in the second national exam exceeded ten thousand.
Thanks to Mathias's leadership and the Department of Examinations' early preparations, over ten thousand candidates completed all their subjects smoothly in batches within three days, without any disorder or incidents.
After the exam, the enormous number of answer sheets kept the officials extremely busy, and they worked overtime for three days and nights to finish grading everything and finally produce the full results.
At the same time, Elara had just finished meetings with all the technical departments and urgently needed talent in various areas.
So when Mathias delivered the exam results to her, she personally awarded titles to all those who passed during the next court session.
The number of people who passed the second exam was more than three times the number from the first one.
Surprisingly, the top scorer in both the written and martial exams was the same person, someone she knew well, someone she brought back from the faraway Geranium Kingdom — Wenbin.
When Elara saw his name, she smiled. He truly lived up to his boldness, daring to recommend his talents during the Banquet of Nations despite being a slave.
He only needed a chance, and he really rose above ten thousand people to reach the very top.
After returning to Plumera Kingdom with Mr. Gong and the merchant group, Wenbin was freed from slavery by Mr. Gong, who then found him a quiet residence to prepare for the exams.
Wenbin had grown up as the son of a slave, always treated worse than animals, but after arriving in Plumera Kingdom, those scornful and mocking gazes completely disappeared.
Even when people saw the slave tattoo on his body, the locals still smiled and spoke kindly to him, asking where he came from and whether he was also joining the exam.
When he nodded, they looked at him with respect he had never seen before, even speaking to him with cautious admiration, as if he was not a slave at all but someone destined to rise.
People like him, joining the national exam as former slaves, were not rare in this country.
In fact, it was quite common.
Citizens did not show the same disgust and contempt toward slaves like in other nations.
Here, even slaves were no longer seen as slaves.
Here... they could finally be treated as human beings.
When Wenbin realized this, all he felt was deep gratitude and overwhelming emotion.
Grateful to the lady who saved him and brought him to this land of paradise.
And thankful that after years of wandering and hardship, he had finally found a sacred place that accepted him and never judged his lowly origin.