So I recently just did my second round of crafting quests... and I picked up a few of the new Storm Recipes from the Temple of Storms. I was shocked when I went back to the original (in Wizard City) crafter to pick up the two transmutes I needed and it says Initiate Crafter only? Am I missing something here, did I encounter a bug? Or did I really miss out on getting these transmutes because I didn't get them before I moved on to the next tier of crafting. If this is so ... I feel that I really got jipped out of some things. I am technically a "better" crafter in the game now but I can't buy stuff from a earlier crafter? I'm pretty disappointed if that's the case.
That's just how crafting is - there are a lot of weird things, like most of Eudora's housing item recipes require reagents that are unavailable in Wizard City unless you are lucky enough to find them at the Bazaar. It's how they get you to keep coming back to Wizard City for stuff.
It should not say "only". It is a minimum requirement. If you have received your initiate crafter's badege or higher, you can use those transmutes (and anything else she has).