Elara looked with some surprise at the bamboo slips pointed out by the System. These bamboo slips looked extremely ancient. She had originally thought they must be filled with all sorts of complex and hard-to-understand oracle bone script or something.
But it turned out they actually contained the same kinds of technological knowledge she had once received from the System through missions?
The knowledge given to her by the System actually existed in this ancient world too?
Could the divine bloodline be related to the System inside her mind? Did they both come from the same advanced future civilization?
The more she thought, the deeper it got.
Listening to the still-excited System in her mind urging her on, Elara didn't hide anything and directly asked the System this question.
The System's excited voice paused, and after a few seconds of thought, it replied in a voice that sounded even more confused than hers:
"[That's right, this world actually has the exact same things as the Main System... then Master, maybe your guess is correct? But I've never seen any related records in my own data or in the Main System.
Even the term 'divine bloodline blessing' is something I learned step by step only after binding with your soul.]"
Elara: ...Fine, even the System doesn't know.
With no more evidence to think further on this, Elara had to temporarily let go of the thought and looked back at that pile of bamboo slips.
Speaking of which, the technological knowledge the System gave her in the past always had to be earned by completing missions.
Now, those techniques were just piled up right in front of her...
Although she still had many questions, Elara couldn't help but feel happier.
Following the method described by the System, she walked up to the stacked bamboo slips and touched the one on the bottom.
"[Ding~ Congratulations! You have obtained [Basic Salt-Making Technique]]"
The familiar mechanical voice sounded.
Just like every time she completed a mission and received a reward, a book titled Basic Salt-Making Technique appeared directly in Elara's mind and slowly opened...
She had actually received a skill book just like a mission reward, just by touching it...
Elara's lips lifted slightly.
This trip into the hidden chamber was really worth it, far more profitable than she had expected.
After collecting it, that bamboo slip instantly looked like it had weathered into dust, becoming tattered and unusable.
With the smooth collection of Basic Salt-Making Technique, Elara didn't hesitate and continued touching the other bamboo slips.
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have obtained Basic Printing Technique]"
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have obtained Basic Ancient Mechanisms and Devices]"
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have obtained Basic Ancient Weaving Technique]"
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have obtained Basic Ancient Farming Encyclopedia. Since you have already obtained Basic Ancient Farming Encyclopedia, the duplicate will be converted into upgrade energy. Would you like to upgrade it?]"
This was Elara's first time encountering an upgrade option: "[Yes.]"
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have successfully upgraded Basic Ancient Farming Encyclopedia to Intermediate Ancient Farming Encyclopedia]"
Once the mechanical voice fell, the Basic Ancient Farming Encyclopedia in Elara's mind instantly became larger and twice as thick.
The contents included not only a full catalog of plant types but also richer and more detailed planting skills and techniques.
Great. Once she returned to Plumera, she could further train the technical officers in the agriculture and labor department.
Let them also deepen their studies so they could cultivate more high-yield and high-quality crops.
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have successfully obtained Basic Smelting Technique. Since you have already obtained Basic Smelting Technique, the duplicate will be converted into upgrade energy. Would you like to upgrade it?]"
After upgrading her Agricultural Technique, Elara touched Smelting Technique again: "[Yes.]"
"[Ding~ Congratulations, you have successfully upgraded Basic Smelting Technique to Intermediate Smelting Technique]"
The Smelting Technique was even more important to Elara than the Agricultural Technique.
After all, if she wanted to arm a powerful army, she had to first refine high-quality iron and other materials using smelting techniques so she could create better equipment and weapons.
And the upgraded Intermediate Smelting Technique did not disappoint Elara at all.
After the original "Iron Smelting Technique," there was now an even more advanced smelting method—"Steelmaking Technique"!
Everyone knew that steel was a huge improvement over iron in all kinds of performance.
For example, it had better load-bearing capacity, stronger toughness, better plasticity, heat resistance, corrosion resistance, and more.
The appearance of "steel" could be considered a milestone in the history of smelting technology.
If all the weapons and equipment supplied to her army could be switched to steel, then their combat strength would double, no doubt.
Besides being used to make weapons and armor, "steel" would also be extremely useful in daily life.
If they could produce steel in large quantities, the overall development of Plumera would definitely take a big leap forward.
However, even though steel was excellent, it was much harder to forge than iron.
Especially in this backward ancient world, producing steel was not easy at all.
Fortunately, with this upgraded simplified version of the steelmaking technology from the System, Elara wasn't worried about the technical side of things.
As for whether she could publicly introduce "steel" into various aspects of Plumera's production and daily life after making it... she planned to use the name of the Heavenly Crafts Pavilion to explain it, which should mostly solve the problem.
In addition to the steel smelting technique, the upgraded Intermediate Smelting Technique also included various other ore smelting techniques.
Such as gold, silver, copper, as well as aluminum, mercury, zinc, platinum, sulfur, and more.
Almost all the common metal ores used in modern society now had corresponding smelting methods in the Intermediate Smelting Technique.
With these basic metal smelting techniques, it would be much easier to make stronger, more modern tools, or develop more practical products from that foundation.
It might even help push this ancient world's own technological progress forward to some extent.
In short, the upgrades and newly obtained skills were all extremely useful to Elara.
Besides the Farming Technique and Smelting Technique, the Beginner Terrain Management Solutions of Ancient Times, Ancient Cold Weapons and Armor Casting Compendium, Ancient Epidemic Prevention Encyclopedia, and Ancient Basic Construction Handbook that Elara had acquired before were now all basically upgraded from beginner to intermediate level.
All of the books in her mind had now doubled in size and content.
Unfortunately, even though there were more than a dozen stacks of bamboo slips here, and each stack had dozens of bamboo scrolls piled on it, not all of them could be absorbed by Elara.
In each stack, usually only a small number of bamboo slips at the very bottom could be absorbed by her.
For the rest, the System would display strange messages such as:
Ding~ Sorry, the knowledge in this bamboo slip exceeds the current world's acceptable limit. You cannot absorb it for now.