He's here!
Li Wei lightened his steps and peered downstairs by the faint light of the second-floor hallway lamp.
Don Quixote stood at his bedroom door, fully clad in armor.
Unlike other nights, Don Quixote didn't immediately push open the door. He stood perfectly still, like a statue.
"Sir Don Quixote?" Li Wei walked over and called to him softly. "Long time no see?"
It was a long while before Don Quixote finally turned his head.
"Ah, Sir Li Wei, my friend... You've come at just the right time." His voice was low, but carried a faint excitement. "After ten months of arduous cultivation in the Wilderness Frontier, I can feel it... The bottleneck that has held me back for years is finally about to break."
Li Wei chuckled inwardly, but played along. "So you're about to advance?"
"Exactly!" Don Quixote boomed. "The moon is bright tonight. This is the perfect time to break through to the next rank and restore the glory of knighthood!"
With that, he strode toward the small garden behind the house.
At that moment, Li Wei heard the familiar voice in his mind again:
[You have received a quest: Stand Guard] [The knight Don Quixote is at a critical juncture, breaking free of his mortal body and stepping into the supernatural. As his friend, you must ensure that no dark creatures disturb him for the next 30 minutes.] [Quest reward: Free attribute point +0.1]
It had been more than ten days. The quest had finally appeared.
The corners of Li Wei's mouth lifted slightly as he followed Don Quixote onto the stone-paved ground in the backyard.
"Where's the sacred statue we brought back earlier?" Don Quixote looked around, then turned back toward the house. "I'll go get it."
Seeing that he was about to go back and foolishly try to move the statue again, Li Wei hurried to stop him.
"I'll get it!" he said quickly. "You need to save your strength for the breakthrough! Don't waste it on this!"
If Don Quixote tried to move it and found he still couldn't, wouldn't he go into seclusion again? Would Li Wei really have to wait another ten days?
He hurried inside and moved the gold-painted plaster lion statue, its paint chipped and flaking, which they had brought back two weeks ago, to the front of the garden.
"The sacred statue shall bear witness to this moment." Don Quixote sat cross-legged before it. "My friend, guard this holy ground for me. Until I complete my cycle of cultivation and the holy light is reforged, not even the lord of Hell himself may set foot here."
"Understood!"
Li Wei crouched on the steps, resting his chin on one hand and holding an electric fly swatter in the other, ready to help Don Quixote at a moment's notice.
For the next thirty minutes, Don Quixote kept his eyes closed. His breathing grew slow, and his whole body trembled faintly.
Meanwhile, Li Wei guarded Don Quixote in the dead of night, electric fly swatter in hand. Every so often, it crackled and popped.
After thirty minutes, Don Quixote let out a long breath and rose to his feet.
A panel appeared in Li Wei's mind at the same time:
[Quest: Stand Guard completed] [Under your protection, the knight Don Quixote successfully completed his "Ascension."] [Reward issued: Free attribute point +0.1]
Before Li Wei could celebrate, another panel popped up:
[You closely observed a knight's "Ascension."] [Constitution +0.1] [Constitution 1.4]--[Constitution 1.5]
A double-yolk egg!
After going ten days without triggering a quest, the next one had given him a double reward: a full 0.2 attribute points.
Don Quixote looked ready to try moving the sacred statue again. Before Li Wei could even assign his points, he tossed aside the fly swatter and rushed over to take over the job.
"I feel full of strength now," Don Quixote said when they were back inside. "I can begin preparing for the expedition."
"An expedition?" Li Wei asked curiously. "But haven't the witches already been defeated?"
"The witches were only the threat before us, my friend," Don Quixote said earnestly. "We have enemies farther afield."
All right. Don Quixote must have bought himself another knightly fantasy novel recently, so his story had gotten an update.
Li Wei was happy enough to go along with it, though. Compared with the uncertainty of triggering quests out in the world, he could trigger them more frequently while Don Quixote was sleepwalking.
"Please let me join your expedition!"
Li Wei shouted as he quietly activated Eloquent Speaker, trying to influence Don Quixote.
The request made perfect sense to the knight, and with the skill's boost, it didn't take much effort for Don Quixote to nod in satisfaction.
He solemnly patted Li Wei on the shoulder, then dragged his clanking armor back to the bedroom. Before long, the familiar snores, like distant muffled thunder, came through the floor from downstairs.
Li Wei returned to his bedroom on the second floor and looked at the free attribute point he had gained.
His earlier experience had changed his strategy. Focusing only on strength had created a lag between his muscles and his nervous system's reaction speed.
He decisively changed course and put 0.1 attribute points into agility.
[Agility 1.5]--[Agility 1.6]
The simultaneous boost to his constitution and agility had taken his body's physical responsiveness to another level.
His heart beat more steadily and powerfully. When Li Wei carefully felt his chest, he could sense a tremendous force that seemed ready to burst out of him.
That powerful pump could send highly concentrated oxygen to every muscle fiber in an instant.
The increase in agility had also noticeably sped up his nerve conduction. The feeling of his body moving as soon as he willed it, of being able to hit exactly where he aimed, had become even more pronounced.
Li Wei couldn't help looking out the window.
He had been in New York for almost a month. Thanks to the system, his strength had risen from 0.8 to 1.8, his spirit from 1.0 to 1.5, his agility from 0.9 to 1.6, and his constitution from 0.8 to 1.5.
The changes were nothing short of earth-shattering. He had gone from an unhealthy amateur who struggled to bench-press 40 kilograms, neither stupid nor particularly bright, to a super-jacked guy who could bench-press 225 kilograms, squat 280, and learn a difficult foreign language in two weeks. He could already understand slow-paced Russian news.
With physical stats like these, he wouldn't just dominate his high school team. Even in a higher-level college league, he'd be a bulldozer.
And that wasn't even counting the two ridiculously overpowered skills he'd acquired, or his Bronze Body, whose workings he still hadn't figured out. They gave him increased resistance to blows and a resistance to many diseases and plagues.
Even more incredible, his strength seemed to be increasing without limit.
Perhaps when one of his attributes reached 3.0, his body would evolve even further.
"Tomorrow's the first day of school," Li Wei said, closing his eyes. "I hope my classmates are all easy to get along with."
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