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From the mouth of his fellow adventurers, Arthur found out Lady Morgan had been on duty leave since several days ago. She was summoned by the adventurer's guild.

When Arthur heard this, he was concerned, thinking something big had happened but his friends assured him that this was something routine. Lady Morgan was expected to go to the higher-ups every few months to get updated on everything related to the guild and to refresh the quest notice board.

She was slated to return tomorrow with fresh news and new quests for the adventurers.

It was such a shame that Lady Morgan was not there because this meant Arthur would have to wait for another day before he could hand in his quest. However, his fellow adventurers were there to cheer him right up. Before the young man could get depressed over this unfortunate event, they hauled Arthur off to the Fever Dream to have a nightlong celebration.

During the party, Arthur entertained his friends with his latest adventure, telling them about his foray into the series of paintings at Lady Myra's. Most of the local adventurers had their jaws to the ground when Arthur mentioned Lady Myra's name.

After that, Arthur regaled them with how he managed to escape the paintings with Lady Myra and even at one point, took out the paint brush to show his friends. Normally, Arthur would not have been so cavalier with the handling of artifacts but that night he was under the influence of alcohol.

Thankfully, nothing happened. The equally inebriated group of adventurers twirled the brush around like a baton like it did not even register in their mind the power within the object they were holding. Eventually, they returned the paint brush to Arthur and they hauled the drunk young man back to the guild.

...

Arthur woke up the next morning when the sun climbed above the horizon. As he crawled up in bed, there was a dull ache in his mind. "I've got to stop partying so hard with the lads when I come back," Arthur said as he shook his head, trying to wake himself up.

Arthur moved to freshen up and when he was feeling more like himself, he went to the lobby. The moment he stepped into it, he heard Lady Morgan's voice say, "Good morning, Arthur. It has been so long, how have you been? And I hope that you've completed your quest successfully."

"Good morning, Lady Morgan?" Arthur lifted his head to return the greeting. When he did so, Lady Morgan gasped softly. "Jesus Christ, do you look worse for wear this morning. What happened to you?"

Arthur scratched his head with an embarrassed smile. He moved to the counter and filled Lady Morgan in on everything that had happened while she was away. When he brought up the party from the night before, Lady Morgan laughed and warned kindly, "I know you all are still young but you have to stop partying so hard. Drink responsibly."

Arthur gave Lady Morgan his promise, before moving to the official reason why he was there. Arthur told Lady Morgan the adventure he had with Lady Myra and then handed the paint brush over to her.

Lady Morgan accepted it, studied it for a while before putting it away. She told Arthur sincerely, "I thank you on the guild's behalf for procuring such a powerful artifact and I also need to thank you personally for saving my good friend."

The quest was handed in and Lady Morgan gave Arthur the quest money that he was promised. Arthur counted them and then thanked Lady Morgan.

Arthur turned away from the counter and walked to the notice board. There were indeed quite a number of fresh new quests. Arthur scanned through all of them and one grabbed his attention. He pulled it off the board to read the quest details.

"Adventurer needed to survey the local mine.

"Quest requirement: Level D.

"Party Size: 1."

Arthur passed the quest notice to Lady Morgan. Lady Morgan looked at it and she explained, "This is one of the new quests that just came in. The person who filed for the quest came from the local mine to the south of the city. If I'm not mistaken, the mine is to produce coal and has been in existence since the very beginning of the city. Some would say, it is one of the reasons why Celestia was even built here in the first place."

"The adventurer's guild received a request for help from the mine's foreman. I hear it is related to the latest path the miners have been tasked to excavate.

"Perhaps they have stumbled across some dangerous discovery? In any case, if you are going to accept this quest, I'd suggest you go to the coal mine and search for the foreman personally to find out more."

Lady Morgan looked up from the quest paper to address Arthur, "Well, will you be accepting this quest?" She glanced at the paper to double check all the necessary details. "You fit all the required criteria so just say the word and the quest is yours."

Arthur thought about it and eventually nodded. It was not like he had any better choices.

After dealing with all the paperwork, Arthur left the adventurer's guild with well wishes from Lady Morgan. "Remember, the mine is on the southern part of Celestia. Good luck on your journey and I'm sure you'll be able to clear this quest.

"Be careful and thank you again for your help with Lady Myra."

Arthur left the adventurer's guild and went on his merry way, to start his new quest.