Serene mind

Mortal tier recipe. No cultivation requirements

What do you mean I’m cheating by using so many mind related products?

Well, considering mental stability is my specialisation is it any surprise that I hold an unconditional bias to it? Moving on.

Maintaining a dedicated thought process without drugs is rather hard. Some relatively ones that grant unparalleled focus by inhibiting certain connections in the brain do exist, and in some mortal worlds are used carefully to deal with a variety of conditions or to just help students stay on track to study all night long. Obviously, changing the brain is dangerous, far more than influencing the semi-corporeal mind instead.

With so many mind related plants available it only took a matter of time for someone to create a combination capable giving anyone intense dedication to the task at hand but also not locking their mind so inhumanistically.

Ingredients and recipe Calming Moss, 50 grams – non magical plant Attention absorber, 4 flowers – non magical flower Low-tier enchanted water, 100 ml – natural gathering stage fluid Soothing lifestone, 10 grams – natural gathering stage mineral

Calming moss is just too easy to add to any of these in the end. A moss that grows well in snowy regions, it is mass-farmed in most worlds.

Attention absorbers are a flower that can grow almost anywhere but requires the attention of other creatures to bloom. For this reason it can be hard to find them naturally, but heavy farming protocols means that buying them is rather easy. They also have a problematic focus-grabbing property upon flowering which often massively reduces farming efficiency.

Enchanted water is still just lots of Qi dumped into water, and nothing can really change that. Unless you’re at the spirit forming stage or above it is always recommended to purchase the low-tier stuff. We haven’t even begun talking about the issues with higher tiers of this ingredient.

Soothing lifestones are another variant of lifestones which focus on the physical over the spiritual. These cannot in any way nurture or heal your soul, but instead will make up for the food and water you’ll fail to consume whilst using this potion. Like all lifestones they can be found in underground deposits, but these ones are mostly found near places with a consistently exuberant vitality. Forests or large root systems are common examples.

Begin by crushing the lifestones to a sand-like powder. It can be crushed smaller, but at that stage it may lose some efficacy. Additionally any larger and the reaction will take far longer due to lower surface area.

For a more delicate portion, use a knife to cut out the ovaries of all the flowers. The stamens should remain however, they are crucial in the attention focusing effects. This is a method used by the plant to attract more pollinating insects and thus propagate better. As the ovaries are enclosed it is harder to draw attention to them, but also the few tests on some mutated versions have shown that adding an equal attraction to these seeds only reduced the flower’s ability to propagate. As for why, maybe a small research project for you instead?

With all the ovaries removed we can drop the flowers into a bowl filled with our enchanted water. Leave them to soak until bright blue veins begin appearing on the petals. When the veins begin flashing in regular intervals they should be removed. This can take between 1-2 minutes per flower. Doing all four at once is possible, but two at a time is recommended for mortal alchemists.

Finally, use the calming moss to bundle up the crushed lifestone. It is fine if the ball doesn’t truly stay together but try to squash it a bit such that it holds temporarily.

Take a pan and place it over a heat source. The pan’s surface must be above boiling at the very least, any less will produce no effect, but the ideal temperature is roughly 250 C. With the pan at this heat you can drop the ball of calming moss in and use something to roll it around slightly.

It is alright if some of the moss ends up burnt to the pan, but it is required that the entire outside is heated before the ball can unravel to release the crushed lifestone. If hot to the touch you can pour in the remaining enchanted water and stir gently. Use a wooden utensil if necessary to scrape off the burnt calming moss on the pan. Unfortunately, we cannot use oils or lubricants in this recipe. At least those with Qi can directly use that to stop the moss from burning onto the pan’s surface.

With all the moss scraped off you can use a flat side to squash the ball. This allows the lifestone to come into contact with the enchanted water if some had not already seeped through the plant. Allow the enchanted water to come to a boil before removing the heat source, stirring a few times as it bubbles away. When the bubbling stops you can leave the mix to rest and begin grinding up the flowers.

This is no different than the other times, simply use a mortar and pestle to grind it to a mush and add the fibrous plant mass to the fluid. Mix gently and leave the product to finish for 6 hours. After this time it must be strained through a fine material to remove the residue and then the potion will be finished. Bottle it as necessary.

Usage

Serene mind is a bit of a cop-out in naming terms. In some way it truly does calm a person down and put them into a ‘serene’ state, but it does this by limiting their ability to focus on multiple concepts and instead focus wholeheartedly on a single one. Of course in the case of some deliberating over committing a mass murder it would be best to not give them this stuff…

The exact effects are relatively vague, but it can be said that as the potion begins taking effect you will find yourself more and more attached to whatever task is at hand and its following dependents. For example if you’re focused on cleaning your kitchen then when you finish you’ll move onto the bathroom and then the bedroom. However it is limited at the same time, such that finishing all directly correlated tasks will not cause you to expand further outwards. I.E. You will not go over to your neighbours and clean their homes.

Aside from that, this causes no harm to the mind or body in the long run compared to traditional drugs. Although in some cases it may cause harm to your wallet or those around you, so take care when using this stuff. I’d recommend only using it when alone and focusing on an exceptionally gruelling task.