"W-w-w-what did you say?! There is no way that's possible!"
Maximilian Oreio Lagier shouted, unable to control his feelings. Being one of the most powerful people in the Slane Theocracy as the Cardinal of Darkness, Maximilian has attended many of these meetings since the undead sorcerer Ainz Ooal Gown suddenly appeared and thrown the world into Chaos a year ago.
Ever since the first meeting where they learned that Ainz Ooal Gown possessed hundreds of high level undeads and had a spell that could destroy an entire wing of the Kingdom's Royal Army, the members in the room have been bombarded with outrageous rumours of the impossible feats of Ainz Ooal Gown, but all have been proven to be true.
By all means, Maximilian should have been used to these outrageous reports on the Sorcerer Kingdom by now. Yet, this was something that Maximilian could not accept no matter what.
"They are registering 20 Adamantite teams from E-Rantel and 10 Adamantite teams from Arwintar to the Adventurer's Festival?! That's more than double the number of Adamantite teams in existence! And none of the Adamantite teams are working for the Sorcerer Kingdom, other than Momon's Darkness. There's a limit to how ridiculous a claim you can make!"
If there was one shred of luck left for humanity after the appearance of Ainz Ooal Gown, it would be the fact that most of the adventurers escaped his domain before he could take full control. Most of the adventurers fled E-Rantel the moment the news of the war on the Katze Plains reached their ears, and as a last act of defiance, the Emperor of the Baharuth Empire Jircniv Rune Farlord el Nix secretly sent off all the Adventurers in the Empire before submitting to the Sorcerer Kingdom and becoming its vassal. Jircniv held on to the last faint hope that if all of humanity's finest warriors could escape, then there is still a chance that one day they may be able to kill Ainz Ooal Gown and overthrow the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Thus, while it was known that the Adventurer's Guilds of E-Rantel and Arwintar both fell to Ainz Ooal Gown, all he obtained was an empty shell with none of the contents. There was just no way he could train up 20 Mithril teams, let alone Adamantite ones in merely a year, no matter who he was.
"Well, it does sound a bit unbelievable."
All of the other people present in the room also had their doubts.
"But what does the Sorcerer king Ainz Ooal Gown gain from making such a bluff?"
"The Adventurer's Festival is only a month away. We can all see whether or not his adventurers are actually Adamantite level or not then. There's no way to fake your rank in the Festival, after all. He will only make himself a laughingstock if his adventurers are not up to par."
The Adventurer's Festival was a festival held once a year. Adventurer's Guilds from all over sent their top adventurers to the Festival. Even though Adventurer's Guilds work separately from the country and does not get involved in politics, it was still very important to national prestige to show that your country has an abundance of talent. For the adventurers themselves, it was a good opportunity to show off their own strengths, so that they can gain more prestige and contacts, and get more private requests for work. They could also see just how their strength compares with other adventurers. Even though the Guilds are pretty good at gauging what rank an adventurer should be, it is only through competitions in the Festival that adventurers can really settle the score as to just who is closer to becoming a Mithril adventurer, or which Adamantite adventurer team was the strongest of them all.
Adventurers also shared their stories, and exchanged tips and tricks on how to survive and get stronger with each other. This was the perfect opportunity for Ainz to get his adventurers to spread the world about how glorious the Sorcerer Kingdom really was.