Vanroc described the monsters that had hunted him after trying to catch one with his trap.

When Reg heard that the bodies of the monsters were purple, and they had an upright mane and tusks, a name immediately came to his mind.

"Based on your description, I only know one monster that has these characteristics. You came across a group of Blood-Boar."

Vanroc had intended to read books later or ask adventurers what monster he had encountered. Now Reg seemed to know which monsters he had met, so he asked: "Blood-Boar?"

Reg seemed to be more talkative than before and replied: "Blood-Boar are monsters that live in groups. You can escape them individually, but as a group they are a problem even for some adventurers."

He took a breath and continued in a more serious tone: "These beasts are the main problem here in the area. They are not afraid of humans and come to our fields to look for food. They are not picky about what they eat. As soon as they have been on a field, all that remains are some leftovers. That is why we farmers have to protect ourselves against them, otherwise we have no harvest."

Vanroc became aware, through Reg's words, how much luck he had in the forest and how stupid it was to go through it. Previously he had complained about the slope because he had lost some of his belongings there. Now he was glad that he had rolled down the slope, so that the Blood-Boar didn't follow him any longer.

Even though Reg said the fence was meant to stop the Blood-Boar, Vanroc found it unlikely that a simple wooden fence would withstand them.

So he asked: "If the Blood-Boar are so dangerous, how is a simple wooden fence supposed to stop them?"

"Very simple! By painting the fence with 'Field Protection'.", replied Reg to Vanrocs question.

Since Vanroc had never heard of anything like Field Protection, he asked with interest: "What is Field Protection?

Reg seemed to have forgotten his cold way of answering in only short sentences and answered in a teaching tone: "Field Protection is a substance that is applied to the fence once a year. It smells a little sweet to people, but many monsters don't like it and stay away from it. This also includes the Blood-Boar!

The substance came on the market for the first time a year ago. The merchant I mentioned earlier is the only supplier. Last year I tested it on another field. Since the effect was very good, I decided this year to also protect this field with it."

Vanroc understood how important it was to protect the harvest, so he asked: "If the effect of the product is so good, why didn't you buy the product for this field after a month or two of testing?"

Reg was surprised that Vanroc asked him this question, as the answer, in his opinion, was so obvious.

"Because the stuff has a ridiculously high price! I had to calculate last year's profit, so I could pay for the stuff for the second field."

When Vanroc heard the answer, he realized how meaningless his question was and wanted to distract from it by asking Reg: "Do I have to pay attention to anything when applying it?"

"No, it's applied as if you were painting the fence with a color."

Reg got some paintbrushes and the liquid Field Protection from the wooden wheelbarrow and started applying it with Vanroc on the fence.

---

The next morning Vanroc was woken up by Shaia again. He noticed that his body felt heavier than the day before, although his injuries had recovered somewhat. Vanroc could attribute this to the fact that the movements he had made on the field yesterday at work were movements he did not usually make. This made him aware that although he was not nonathletic, he should train his body more to avoid being so exhausted from such work.

After getting up and washing, Vanroc had breakfast with Shaia, just like the day before. Meanwhile, Reg was already outside and had already been working for an hour.

They then went back outside where Shaia said: "Dad said you should help me milk our herd of Steel-Cows today."

Vanroc had read about Steel-Cow in a book of his grandfather some time ago. Therefore, he knew that Steel-Cow is a special kind of monster, which compared to other monsters can be easily held by humans. Furthermore, they are the only monster species that produce milk all year round if they are milked. Over the past 200 years, fewer and fewer steel cow have been seen in the wild.

However, since there was neither a drawing nor a description of this monster in the book, Vanroc was interested in what they might look like.

Shaia set off with Vanroc to get to the field where the steel cow herd is kept.

On the way, Shaia told Vanorc that they only had one herd of 10 Steel-Cows, as they already take a lot of time to keep and look after. If they had more of them, her time would not be enough to do the tasks she otherwise had besides milking on the farm.

After a while, they arrived at the field with the Steel-Cow herd.