"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.
