In fact, that was untrue. Darius' rating of it was actually much higher than it objectively deserved when compared to his own means.
One first should note the difference between Itemancing/Transmutation and the Material element.
Firstly, cost. Transmutation had its own currency in form of Conversion Points, a free but limited resource that was refreshed every day to a certain limit.
Itemancing and the Material Element required an investment in form of mana, a free resource that was not limited, always present, and ever regenerating.
In this regard, Itemancing and the Material element won out over Transmutation.
Secondly, utility. Transmutation could be accessed from anywhere and used on anything, changing it to whatever you wanted as long as you had the CP.
Itemancing could be used anywhere and on any item, to do a limited number of functions related to your progress in the class.
The Material element could be accessed anywhere, but could only be used on a select few things, changing one type of item from one state to another at a time.
In this regard, Transmutation severely outclassed Itemancing while it outright slaughtered the Material element.
Thirdly, quality. Transmutation automatically processed an item into the highest possible quality Faust could produce within that item's designated grade.
Itemancing produced the highest quality based on the items' function as well the class' development.
The Material Element produced the highest quality that the spell in question used could offer.
As for this, it was clear. The value of Transmutation had always been in its quality, and it could never be beaten.
Fourthly, duration. Transmutation was instant.
Itemancing was instant.
The Material element took time depending on talent, the amount of mana infused and the quality of the spell for Faustian, and depending on the spell percentages for the Supreme System.
This too, was quite clear.
Fifthly, success rate. Transmutation never failed.
Itemancing had a low chance to fail, but due to the nature of the Supreme System, it was able to inform you of your chances.
With the Material element, one of two things would happen. Either you were competent enough to succeed or you would taste blood that day.
After all of this, is there even a need to go on?
Apart from cost, Transmutation absolutely smashed the Material element's value in every other way so badly it was brutal. This made Darius who possessed both sigh with lament.
Fate was truly amusing. It gave this element to the one person in the entire Faust who needed it the least.
Everyone else must perceive Darius as the luckiest man in the world, about to become so filthy rich he wouldn't know what to do with himself!
… how would the denizens of Faust feel if they knew that Darius had been blessed with something far better on the very same day he had spawned?
Once Darius had understood what Transmutation was way back then, he had already figured out that he was destined to become far wealthier than he ever would have been on Earth.
A premonition that had proven well-founded ever since the first Safemoon auction.
Darius breathed out lightly. Well, this new element changed a few things in the future of Faust.
Firstly, it opened up a new Divine Domain. As was explained, the Gods who existed now were born from the respective Divine Domains, encompassing that element's divinity.
However, Divine Domains had multiple attributes. For example, there was Zhurong, the God of Fire who had taken the Fire Heart of Gaia and there was also Pyrrha, a Goddess of Fire.
With both existing, who was the real God/Goddess/Deity of Fire??
This is why elements were important. Elements were more powerful than concepts. Elements gave birth to many attributes within their scope, while a concept was all-encompassing within itself, meaning no other could be born.
For example, an element like Lightning had both Zeus and Thor within, but the two focused on different things. Zeus embodied the Lightning that came down from the heavens while Thor was Lightning that came from a thunderstorm.
However, a concept was something like Childbirth, in which there was only one Goddess by the name of Ilithyia.
In essence, the Material Element would have multiple Divine Domains open up that would feature attributes of the element in different circumstances. For some of these, they had already nurtured their Gods, who would awake and join the pantheon of Elysium.
Others though, were still empty.
You could already imagine what would happen next...
Once again, the Discoverer was of paramount importance because - you guessed it - they could innately sense where these Divine Domains were. So not just True Lords, but even the Gods of Elysium were feverishly searching for him.
There was a bloodbath incoming that had nothing to do with Darius' planned wars, though he had already started scheming on ways how to make use of that fact.
Secondly, the Material element was a developmental/mercantile element. This would greatly enrich Faust as a whole as people would begin to change useless items into things they needed for production.
Prices of materials would drop and more craftsmen would be born because they could waste more resources in training for a lower cost.
Faust would experience a developmental boom until things evened out and the true tycoons of the Material element would take charge, forcibly stunting development to raise prices up, thereby raising profits.
It was nothing new to people from Earth. Whenever a new discovery had been made that had revolutionized the world, it would precede a great boom of growth until those at the top put a cork in it and added a price tag.
Thirdly, it would allow new Dungeons to exist with unique items, materials, and various valuable things of this element. Or the same went for the equivalent of Dungeons on the other continents.
Finally, it would allow Darius to control a section of Faust for a while just relying on this. With his ability, he could spit out perfected spells using Transmutation for this element and teach it to a loyal group of people and make them the new paragons of the element.
With his 200% boost from the Laws of Faust, he could make far better and more insane spells for the Material element compared to any other element he had ever worked with.
So in essence, the element was useless to him personally, but he could develop it for others - the world - or for himself - a personal faction - and his group.
Hm… well, the choice was a bit too obvious, here wasn't it?
