The contrast between the two certainly amused Darius, but he didn't really care about either of them. Rather, he focused on the dwarf who was gazing at him respectfully while waiting for the details of his offer.
Out of habit, Darius Analyzed the fellow.
[Name: Maximo Riverstrike III || Race: Dwarf || Stage: Master || Jobs: Inventor, Creator.
HP: 31,706/31,706 || MP: 10,582/10,582 || STA: 14,134/14,134
Level: 74 || P-Status: Robust || M-Status: Curious
Power: 166 || Speed: 121 || Constitution: 191
Magic: 143 || Will: 786 || Luck: 34
Skills: Grandmaster Blacksmithing, Grandmaster Refinery, Grandmaster Enchanting, Grandmaster Artificing, Grandmaster Mining, etc.
Spells: Stone to Mud.]
Darius' breathing caught for a second, shocked by what he casually discovered. Firstly, the Master dwarf had the two jobs of Inventor and Creator. Darius had used the system to analyze hundreds of targets, but this was the first time he was seeing this.
This meant many things, but chief among them was that this Maximo fellow was not a blacksmith, that was just ONE part of his skillset. He was a person who created new things, inventing them into Faust. He was a pioneer of invention and design, someone who would likely revolutionize the content if he had the capital.
Darius could have easily seen himself relying on Maximo to bring the various contraptions from earth to life using his skill had Gravitas not existed from him to use as a springboard to create Miranda and the like.
Next was his Physical status. Usually, everyone was either Healthy, Injured, Incapacitated, or Ill. This was his first time seeing a 'robust' status, but then again, it could be a racial thing since dwarves are known to be robust.
After that was his repertoire of skills. He was a Grandmaster-level crafter in almost all physical crafts! He could literally make the best grade of everything,m whether it was weapons, robes, magic tools, etc!
He was only at the Master stage too! What kind of talent was this? This was a pure Faustian, with no system to assist him, yet look at his skillset!
Finally, what shook Darius was the dwarf's only spell, which was Stone to Mud. He shuddered, for the implications of this were too great. Stone to Mud was the basic spell of the Material Element he had discovered.
In other words, it was something one could only have if they awakened as a mage and chose the Material Element.
Maximo Riverstrike was neither a mage nor a warrior. He had not Awakened, nor had he Sparked. He was a pure dwarf who only lived for his craft, and nothing else.
So how did he acquire a spell?
This was where the implications lay. When discovering a new element, Darius was revealed many things about the element and how things worked overall in Faust.
As said before, he had special privileges like being able to create spells easier and to sue any spell of the element easier, as well as know the locations of the Divine Domains of the new element as well as what they did.
However, as said before, there were those who, after an element was discovered, would awaken it due to their almost maddening affinity with the element that surpassed the discoverer.
Being the discoverer was one thing, but having a perfect affinity was another. It meant one would be able to access the new element with ease and without using the spirit and soul as a medium through magic, cultivation, exorcism, etc.
In other words, it could be taken that it was a bloodline ability. Something you could use just because, even without understanding it properly.
Maximo fell into this category. Darius had been searching for those who were extremely high in terms of affinity with the Material Element so he could recruit them into his new faction, but Miranda had just led him to the gold mine.
"Forget about what I said before. Maximo Riverstrike, what is it that you want in life? What do you fight for?" Darius asked seriously, smile gone.
The sudden change startled Darla and Kiran, but they made themselves inconspicuous as they noticed that Darius was not even paying the slightest attention to them.
Maximo was initially surprised, but became silent. The entire room descended into this worrisome silence for a while before Maximo spoke.
"What do I want…?" Maximo parroted as he pondered.
He place both palms flat on his counter and sighed gently. "All I want is to be able to work to my heart's content, creating unique items not for myself, but for those who need them most. Somewhere out there, there is a person who might have a specific problem that only I could solve."
Maximo then sighed. "However, I do not have the capital nor ability to be everywhere at once. I used to roam the lands doing what I could, but things were not optimal."
"Until Safemoon came about. I immediately signed up when I heard the kind of resources they had here because I want to research them while making money on the side."
Maximo looked around. "My shop is still shabby because up until now, I still haven't gotten a grasp on the limits of the goods made here. They seem to be of utter perfection that anything made with them would be limitless in quality."
Maximo shook his head. "However, that is impossible. The true way to hone one's craft is not to hammer something a hundred times, but to know the limits of the materials you use. Once you know every single property and how they clash or mesh, you can use even the shoddiest materials to the maximum potential, with no wastage whatsoever."
The three in the room, Darius, Darla, and Kiran, found themselves nodding in agreement. They were warriors, so they understood this concept even better.
Yes, fear the man who had trained one punch over a thousand times… but you should probably fear even more the man who can move his entire body without wasting a single bit of energy, as well as one who knew all the weak points of the body.
