Peter fixes Courtney with a stern look, “Courtney, your defense is stealth based. Yes, I know, you’ve been forced into a more upfront style of combat as of late. Still, you would be better off hidden in the shadows and using a more roguish style of combat. At the very least go for a more agility based dodging defense as your first line of defense. A chance at shadow phasing is only that, a chance. Of course you knew this already, so now onto Rosha.”

He turns and fixes his gaze on Rosha. “Sigh, you aren’t doing bad. In fact, you’re doing above average. It’s these two who are breaking the grading curve.” And he points at Jason and Courtney.

Rosha rolls her eyes, “As if I didn’t already realize that.”

Peter spreads his hands and shrugs, “Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are, just how good your friends are. Though I heard your talk about not being able to cap. Yes, you have that solid foundation from a decent family. Yes, that tends to restrict people from going all the way. However, I do not want to hear you say that about yourself. No matter what others say, that is external. When you say things about yourself though, that brings it inside of you. To internalize such a thing is a tragedy.”

“While I haven’t known you for long, I watched your hard work to get better. I believe in you, so I want you to believe in yourself as well. Your friends care about you, I care about you. Please return the favor and care about yourself as well. Keep reaching because I can see a bright future for you. I wouldn’t personally train you if that wasn’t the case.”

The table falls into silence as Peter finishes his speech, and it remains quiet for a short while. After the awkwardness starts to really ratchet up, Peter fakes a cough. “Okay, anyway, about your growth in defense. The two both follow a similar path. The ability to dodge a blow along with damage reduction. You however took a different path.”

“You have decided to go on the offensive with your defense. To parry attacks is one of the most active of defenses. Technically some people turn it into a passive defense but that requires near insane amounts of muscle memory and practice. However, it can also be one of the more powerful forms of defense. Not only does it use your defensive skills, but parrying also uses your offensive skills to work as well. Being able to double down on it is powerful.”

“Though of course I need to point out you still don’t have a passive defense. And as I mentioned, parrying will not help with that. However, it matches with your dodging. Honestly, your group is made of agility types, so I don’t know what I was expecting.”

“Not quite a defense, but I’m going to train you further in stealth. You’ll find a solution for passive protection, and I can’t do much to quicken the process. However, not being seen in the first place can go a long way in not taking damage. Also, all your friends seem to be doing it already. Courtney is an illusionist with shadow powers while Jason is Jason. My bet is after a bit of training your entire team will be able to sneak through the forest if you wanted to go back that direction.”

Rosha scrunches her eyes, “When we are in the city? I figured you would just be off after getting there. The quest only requires you to help us on the way.”

Peter shrugs, “Well my husband lives there and I plan to stay in the city for a while. Plus I said I would introduce Courtney to a teacher of the kitsune variant illusion spell so it isn’t like I was going to disappear once we get there. Besides that refer back to what I just said earlier. I see a bright future for you and chose to personally train you. Even with what the System wants, I could have just kept it to how I taught the others. There is a good chance of you going far and I want to help with that. So yeah, I plan to teach you stealth as long as you want to learn it.”

Rosha shrugs, “Sounds like something decent to learn anyway, so I don’t see why not.”

Peter claps his hands, “Wonderful! Now you all can head to bed or whatever it is you want to do. I plan to take a quick hop down the road to check on how bad this outbreak of yubjubs is. They should be good training on fighting a mass of enemies that don’t count as a real swarm. Believe me, it is oddly even harder. Sure, a swarm has that constant damage output, but masses of enemies all attacking separately yet at the same time can be devastating. All it takes is enough of them hitting to wreck a man’s day.”

Jason frowns, “Why don’t they count as an actual swarm? From the sounds of it, the jubs all gather together, forming a writhing mass that any other time I could just obliterate it.”

Peter shrugs, “Can’t be a swarm if there is only one monster. While the yubs look like an absolute swarm of toothy meatballs, it all leads back to that interdimensional elephant. Calling them a swarm would be like calling the heads of a hydra a swarm. Anyway, before it gets too late, I’m going to head out. Have a good night and see you all in the morning!”

After Peter has left Jason turns to Rosha, “I agree with him by the by. You can go as far as you want. Even if you have a foundation based on your family, you went your own way. An important part of gaining strength is to be true to yourself. You’ve gone out and done things your own way instead of just assuming what your grandpa and father did is what you should do as well. Mind you, sometimes that works. You never know what might be scoured into your very being. Some families will just be excellent archers and that is it.”

Courtney also chimes in and after more pep talk for Rosha, the group heads off to sleep.