Todd glanced at Mal, Mal glanced at me, and I glanced at Todd.

To complete the confused motion of "do you have any idea what he's talking about?", we all returned our glances to the Guildmaster, who sighed deeply. Dare I say, it might even have been dramatically. Without another word, he simply stood up, walked up to one of the many bookshelves and grabbed a stupidly thick leather-bound book. Once he returned with it to the desk and placed it in front of us, we were able to see what kind of book it was.

"The Grand Manual of Monsters 97'th Edition"

....Alright.

While we all stared at the cinderblock on the table, the Guldmaster leaned down and opened up a compartment behind the desk. It was another book. Smaller, pocket-sized, but a book nonetheless. Before we could ask him what the smaller book was, he turned to me, folding his arms on the table. "-Moonlight Faerie, was it? Rank C+?" he asked, grabbing a pair of reading glasses and flipping open the Monster Manual while glancing up at me.

He didn't even take a look at the summary, just going straight for the later parts of the book, well into the last 10% of it.

Once he found a certain page, he held it while he flipped through about 50 more, and once he read the page up and down, he pinched the part between the first page he'd chosen and the second one. It was less than an inch long, which wasn't much of the book at all.

"This here is all the recorded C+ ranked monsters. 62 pages, 124 monsters, all and all. Compared to the several thousand E ranked monsters, it's barely anything at all. Let's have a look here..." saying so, the Guildmaster started rifling through the few pages, taking a moment's look at each page before continuing to the next, until... "-Here we are, Moonlight Faerie. High ranking member of the Faerie monsters. I shouldn't need to say it since it's more than common knowledge, but with a returner in the room, it is only proper to mention that Faeries are notorious creatures of the woods. If the demons could tame them, they would."

-Demons? Like in hell?

The Guildmaster let his eyes hop between me and Todd. "-You didn't know that. Anyhoo, since you know one of these, I don't need to tell you much more. Let's move onto the Adventurer's Handbook, a requirement for any Adventurer."

"Hey, how come I don't have one of those??" Todd suddenly asked, slamming his hands on the sturdy desk.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Well, you're a returner. You hardly have a need for this sort of information. Anyhoo, page 7, the rankings of monsters. The lowest rank would be F, which would a threat to a single human. In other words, highly aggressive animals fall into this category. Most any Adventurer can handle these. Next up, rank E. Danger to a group of people. A single F-rank Adventurer wouldn't be able to handle these, but a group would. Generally speaking, rank E is more of a transitional ranking to differentiate between animals and monsters," the Guildmaster said, holding the small book in front of him, even though it was obvious he knew this information from heart.

That... was I a danger to a single person while I was a Lightworm?... I kind of don't feel like it. At all. Either way, this doesn't sound too bad, so fa-,

"Rank D, danger to a village. It isn't uncommon to see D-rank monsters leading E-ranked ones into battle. The most common example of this would be the Hellhound leading a pack of Charred Wolves. Then again, the danger can also come from high intelligence or magical prowess. To deal with a D-rank monster, a group of D-ranked Adventurers must be deployed."

Um,, uhhhh-,,,,,

"Next, rank C." The Guildmaster glanced up at me, his eyes dark and grim. "-Danger to a city. Capable of single-handily decimating an entire city. To deal with a C-ranked monster, a team of B-ranked Adventurers and at least one A-ranked Adventurers must be used. Either that, or an army," the Guildmaster said, putting down his reading glasses.

"That-,, dude, sir, that's not possible! I-,, sure, Johnny's stats are pretty high, but not high enough to-," Todd started saying, but he shut himself up halfway, his eyes turning downcast as if in thought. As if he'd realized something. "I... I guess, it would be possible? But-,, but he wouldn't!!"

"-Another part that differentiates the C-rank from the previous rank is the natural intelligence that comes along with it. Their cruelty becomes a result of their humanity, not their feral nature," the Guildmaster said, grabbing his reading glasses and the Monster Manual, flipping back to the page about the Moonlight Faerie. "...Mister Fowl, could I ask you to take the semi-human form so that we may hold a proper discussion?"

...This is all a terrible idea. Maybe I should just-,

"Dude, just... just do it," Todd pleaded, sending me a sidelong glance.

I-... okay. Sure. Shapeshift! Just like the last time I did this, my perspective shifts, and I pop out of my head in that odd way that I kind of don't like. I look the Guildmaster right in the eye. It's at times like this I wish my face was a bit more expressive. Maybe then I'd come off in a more... friendly way.

"Sir," I say in that monotone voice of mine, if only to show that I can, indeed, speak.

"Thank you. If I remember correctly, you were Level 98, rank C+?" the Guildmaster asked, taking his reading glasses back off. Maybe he should just keep them on? Well, it's alright, I guess.

"Correct."

"Must've lived quite the life. As far as the Manual says, Moonlight Faeries, or even Faeries in general, aren't too known for being the comparative sort. I'd call them trickers if they weren't so nefarious. Whatever brought you into this here city?" the Guildmaster asked, leaning his body in my way. Considering he was a large, squat man and I was barely a foot tall, I felt suitably small in comparison.

Right.

"Sir, forgive me. I bear no ill will towards humans. We, the three of us, are good friends. They have... helped me more than I have helped them. If you wish to chase us out, I ask that you only banish myself," I say, since, well, if I was in charge of "monster-killers-inc", I wouldn't much like having a monster in my city.

"Oh, no, Mr Fowl! As ashamed as I am to admit it, the highest-ranking Adventurer among us right now would be the C-ranked Hans Schubert. I need not remind you that we would need a team of B-ranking men at the very least to handle someone such as yourself."

"Is that a compliment?"

"Not if you won't take it as such. Ah, it just occurred to me that you might not know what the difference between rank C- and C+ means. By that blank look on your face, I assume I hit the nail on the head. A max-level C- can defeat a level 1 C, and a max-level C can defeat a level 1 C+. In other words, as you are right now, you are on about the same level as a level 1 B--ranked monster. If you believe me calm, you are believing a lie," the Guildmaster said, and I just...

What.