I became the slime toy of the evil dragon girl?

"The control group on the dragon blood wheat side seems to be growing a little strange..."

The message from the Rongrong Tuo Rabbit Clan child was still playing on repeat in his mind.

Is there a problem with the control group?

Dragon Blood Wheat was originally a mutated variety created by Vivian using dragon blood. If it continues to mutate, it might evolve into a wheat spirit.

I need to go check it out.

When Ian arrived, Fluffy and several rabbit people were already waiting there.

"Lord Ian!" Fluffy bounced over. "You've finally arrived!"

Ian looked in the direction she was pointing.

Since almost all of the dragon blood wheat had sprouted recently, Ian simply set up a few control groups in the field.

The amount of magic infusion, the elemental magic ratio, and some other parameters were adjusted.

The entire experimental field was divided into several areas, most of which were relatively normal.

But the area in the far corner is clearly growing in a rather grotesque way.

Ian remembers clearly that the plants were growing best a few days ago, so robust that they looked like they had eaten protein powder, their vitality almost enough to speak.

But now...

The plants turned an eerie dark purple, their leaves twisted and curled, and scale-like patterns appeared on their surfaces. Some of the stems even grew in a spiral shape, as if they had been forcibly twisted into pretzels.

What's even more worrying is the violent magical fluctuations that permeate the area around these plants.

The art style was supposed to be Stardew Valley, but it feels like Resident Evil.

It's not that I don't want you to mutate, but why don't you mutate according to the leader's plan?

"When did it start?" Ian asked.

"This afternoon," Rongrong said, "it was fine in the morning, but it started acting strange at noon, and then it turned into this by evening."

Ian jumped to the edge of the abnormal area, [Analysis] activated!

My vision was instantly flooded with information.

Dragon Blood Wheat (Abnormal Mutant)

[Status: Magic attribute imbalance, growth trajectory distorted]

[Magic Composition: Fire attribute (Dragon Blood Origin) 87%, Dark attribute 8%, Other attributes 5%]

Ian looked at the analysis results and fell silent.

I can understand the imbalance of magic attributes, but where did this dark attribute come from?

Ian had reason to suspect that Lilith was behind it, because besides himself, Lilith was the only one in Dragon Territory who played Shadow.

"Lilith isn't the type to randomly cast shadows..." Ian muttered to himself.

This area was one of the places where he first experimented with [Magic Vein Weaving].

At the time, in order to test different magic parameters, he buried many different types of magic streams in this field.

In retrospect, it seems that the magic meridians were never discovered to be able to adjust the type of magic from the very beginning, so basically all kinds of magic were poured into the wheat.

Dragonblood Wheat is inherently fiery, and the sudden influx of dark-attribute "underworld magic" might just overwhelm it.

"Do you need me to pull these out?" Rongrong asked softly, "I'm worried they'll affect the ones next to us..."

"Don't move her yet," Ian said. "I think there's still a chance to save her."

He extended two tentacles and gently probed into the soil.

Good guy.

The network of this area is much more complex than elsewhere.

More than ten different types of magical energy converged and intertwined here, forming... uh, a magical hellscape?

Although they were quite peaceful when Ian designed it, bad things still happened after a long period of operation.

Ian retracted his tentacles.

The problem has been identified; the next step is to solve it.

He closed his non-existent eyes and began to mobilize the magic within his body. Golden light points swirled faster as the ability to [weave magic veins] was activated.

This time, he plans to develop a completely new and more refined regulatory framework.

This network needs to have several functions at the same time: stabilize the local magical environment, resolve conflicts between different magical attributes, and gently guide the growth direction of the Dragon Blood Wheat, so that it returns from abnormal mutation to the direction of strengthening.

The tentacles probed into the soil once more.

Magic surged from within, flowing through tentacles into the ground, beginning to weave new veins along the predetermined path.

Then Ian froze.

Something's not right. Something's definitely not right!

The magic consumption... was much less than expected.

In the past, creating such complex plots would have required at least 30% of his current maximum magic power.

But even as it began, he felt the flow of magic becoming unusually smooth, as if the resistance to the act of weaving itself had decreased.

It's like how you used to have to push open a heavy iron door, but now there's no door at all.

Ian could clearly feel that every step of the formation of the magic veins became smoother.

Nodes that previously required repeated adjustments to stabilize now become firmly established almost automatically with a mere thought. The weaving speed of the network has at least doubled, and the utilization rate of magic power is astonishingly high, with virtually no waste.

What's going on? Did I cheat again?

Ian suppressed his doubts and continued with his work. In any case, this was a good thing.

A new network quickly took shape in his hands. The [Magic Stabilization] spell was directly installed on it, responsible for channeling dark magic and pulling back any mutations that had gone astray.

Enjoy a silky smooth experience throughout the entire process.

What was originally expected to take half an hour was done in less than ten minutes.

As the last segment of the energy vein stabilized, Ian could sense a change in the magical environment of the entire anomalous area. The violent magical fluctuations gradually weakened, and the twisted plants seemed to relax somewhat, their curled leaves slightly unfurling.

"Great...it seems to be working!" Junjun exclaimed in delight. "Lord Ian is amazing!"

Ian didn't speak; he was still savoring the strange feeling he had just experienced.

It's so smooth, even applying a glycerin suppository isn't this smooth.

He opened his personal panel.

really……

[Magic Vein Weaving LV.1→LV.2]

Upgraded.

No wonder!

Ian closed the panel, and the light within his body flickered twice merrily. The upgrade brought even greater improvements than he had anticipated; it wasn't just the increased weaving speed and reduced magic consumption, but more importantly…

He reached out his tentacles again, touching the newly formed veins underground.

A thought crossed my mind.

The veins that originally only carried the function of [Magic Stabilization] suddenly gained a faint glow, which was the effect of [Illumination].

It wasn't changed to a lighting spell like before.

Ian could sense that this energy channel was currently operating with two independent magical effects simultaneously: "Magic Stabilization" and "Continuous Illumination." The two effects did not interfere with each other, ran in parallel, yet were perfectly integrated into the same energy channel structure.

He had previously discovered that [Modular Casting] could "install" magic onto the meridians, allowing the magic to run continuously through the meridians.

But back then, only one spell could be installed on a single vein.

It's different now.

The LV.2 [Magic Vein Weaving] skill allows two spells to be installed on a single vein simultaneously.

What does this mean?