When Vanroc let his eyes wander over the surroundings, he recognized a little further away the field where he passed out two days ago. This field was a little further to the right of the Steel-Cow field and was not fenced. Vanroc wondered how Shaia had managed to transport him over that distance after fainting.

So he turned to Shaia and asked her: "How did you manage to get me from here to the farm?"

When she heard Vanroc's question, she started smiling and tried to suppress a slight laugh while answering: "I had a wooden wheelbarrow with me to collect the weeds. After you passed out, I laid you on the ground, got the wheelbarrow, loaded you on the wheelbarrow and pushed you to the farm."

When Shaia told him about the events, the pictures came back to her mind. After she had loaded Vanroc onto the wheelbarrow, she realized that the position was not quite optimal. He was lying head first on the wheelbarrow with his butt in the air. It looked like he was about to make a dive into the wheelbarrow.

Shaia suppressed the urge to laugh and directed the conversation in a different direction as she opened the fence gate to the Steel-Cow field: "This field houses the Steel-Cows."

Vanroc now took a closer look at the Steel-Cow field in front of him. It was fenced in with a fence, which resembled those he had built the day before. On the field he could see a watering place, a feeding place, a small wood shed and of course the 10 Steel-Cow.

The Steel-Cow walked on four legs, had a dark gray skin, a thin tail and about 30 cm long horns. Under their belly hung an udder with two teats, which had the same color as the rest of the skin. Their bodies were about 1.70 high and about 1.80 meters long.

Vanroc could almost feel how relaxed these monsters were as they walked around the large field. The Steel-Cows remained relaxed even though a stranger like him entered the field. He would have expected as a normal reaction that the monsters would at least show some excitement or basic interest in him. However, the Steel-Cows didn't seem to care whether he was in their enclosure or not.

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Since Vanroc couldn't explain the lack of reaction, he asked Shaia: "How come they stay so calm when we enter the field? They seem to ignore us."

Shaia was amused by Vanroc's question and replied: "That's because of their special qualities. Steel-Cows have a skin that is incredibly tough, so there are hardly any other monsters that can hurt them. The only places adventurers can hurt them, for example, are the eyes and inside the mouth. Since they can defend these places with their pointed horns, they have almost no need to worry about other creatures."

Shaia and Vanroc continued to talk while taking care of the adjacent tasks. They replenished the water and food, checked if the fence was still intact everywhere and milked the Steel-Cows.

Vanroc learned to milk them, they have to be cleaned first.

When Vanroc first tried to milk a Steel-Cow, Shaia hadn't told him yet. Before he even got to the udder, the Steel-Cow ran away from him. It didn't matter how many times he tried, the result was the same. Meanwhile, Shaia leaned against the fence and watched the spectacle with a smile.

After a series of failed attempts, Shaia showed him how to do it right.

Shaia took a bucket of water and a cloth to clean a Steel-Cow. After she had completed it, she started milking.

She explained to Vanroc that it was like an exchange of favors. They get the milk and in return the Steel-Cow gets the food and care.

---

In the evening after a long working day Vanroc lay in his bed and was lost in thought. He wondered how to convince the merchant to take him with him even though he had no money. Suddenly Vanroc got up from his bed and went to his broken bag. After a short digging he found what he was looking for. He still had the pair of stones with fire magic, which he had completely forgotten.

His grandfather had once said that these kinds of magical objects are rather rare and therefore relatively valuable. He would try to use them as a means of payment in the hope that the merchant would accept them. After he had made up a battle plan, he lay down again in bed and fell asleep after a short moment.