Chapter 91: Title at the End
"Phew. That completes step one."
"Remarkable," Thrain breathed, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow as he admired their handiwork. "It is... a thing of elegance, Master Riku."
"Now for the heart of it," Riku said. "The master die. Elder Thrain, this will require your utmost skill. We need to engrave the negative of our talisman formation onto this block, perfectly."
"Understood, Master Riku. But doesn’t this need annealing? The process to make the forging easier that you mentioned before?"
"No. As this is the master die, it needs to be very hard and durable so it can repeatedly press its pattern into softer metals without deforming or wearing out quickly."
"In fact, this steel has already undergone a hardening process, like quenching and tempering, to achieve its desired strength and wear resistance. Annealing it would reverse this hardening, making it too soft to function effectively as a die." Riku said, as he had already confirmed the details for the system before.
"Quenching? Tempering? Master Riku, it looks like we dwarves will never reach your level. Your knowledge is out of this world." Borin said with Tharin nodding by his side.
"Ahaha..." Riku sweated bullets on hearing Elder Borin, stunned at the accuracy of his statement. "It is nothing, really. The techniques of dwarves incorporate all of the methods that I have mentioned, though it might be in a different form."
"In fact, I have heard that some of the strongest weapons of this world were forged by the dwarves. Would you happen to know a blacksmith by the name of Elias, Elder Borin?" Riku asked, remembering a name from his time in the game.
"Elias? The High Dwarf Lord King Elias II? Master RIku, you can’t call him a blacksmith. He is the king of all the dwarves, and the ruler of the dwarven kingdom of Ereth Dahr" Borin immediately seemed anxious after listening to RIku.
Elias II? When did that old guy have a kid? And was there a kingdom called Ereth Dahr before?