“So?” Serah asks as she lays on her bed.

“So what?” Samantha asks.

“So what are we going to choose to do?” Serah asks.

“Hmm… I'm not sure. What do you think Nickie?” Samantha asks.

“Hmm… I'm not sure. What do you want to do Serah?” Nickie asks.

“Hmm… I'm not sure. What do you think the three of us are missing?” Serah asks.

“Hmm… I'm not sure.” Nickie says.

“Maybe we should learn something like painting, or maybe we can be fisherman?” Samantha says.

Serah raises an eyebrow. “What good would that be?” She asks.

“Think about it.” Samantha says with a smile. “We should be picking skills that are transferrable right? We don’t want to be in a situation where our skill points are removed again.” She says.

“And? What good would those things be to us?” Nickie asks.

Samantha lets out a sigh. “I don’t know…” She says as she gazes at the ceiling. “I just have a feeling…” She continues to say.

“A feeling about what?” Nickie asks with a raised eyebrow.

Samantha looks to her two companions. “Didn’t you guys feel it? While we were doing our training?” She asks.

Serah raises an eyebrow. “Feel what?” She asks.

“You know. There’s something behind this all. Something is connecting reality… Or something like that… So, my idea is… We should be picking skills that are relevant to life as a whole. If you think about it, what does one really need for life? To live artfully, to seek and find the things we need, and essentially, to live the way we want.” She says, somewhat lost in thought.

“Samantha, what are you talking about?” Serah asks, a little weirded out.

Samantha lets out a sigh. “I just have a feeling… That we shouldn’t let skills and technique cloud our judgement. If there’s something knitting this all together, don’t you think whatever that is would have a perspective of our actions… I feel like if we get on that dude’s good side, we literally won’t have to worry…” Samantha says, not quite sure what she was saying.

“Samantha are you high? What are you even talking about?” Nickie asks.

“Never mind. Maybe we really should just setup a network of bars. At least that way we can have alcohol to drink.” Samantha says, letting the matter go.

“You guys don’t want to do blacksmithing or something? I still remember a bit of my enchanting skill. Pretty sure we could make some good moolah.” Serah says with a smile.

“I like the fisherman idea.” Nickie says.

“Hmm. What about something like carpentry?” Serah asks.

“Hmm. I like the idea of being out on the water.” Samantha says.

“Hmm. Maybe we should just be gardeners.” Serah says.

“Why don’t we split up? Samantha can do the bars. I’ll do the fisherman stuff. Serah can do the gardening.” Nickie suggests.

Serah smiles. “Sure.” She says, satisfied.

…

…

Several years later…

The three girls did their job.

And… After they handed over the businesses, they went back to their original world. Samantha had some family she wanted to see. Serah wanted to go back to the college and see if her skills were still usable, and, if she could, process as much of it as she could. Nickie went along for the ride.

…

…

“Hey, it still works.” Serah says, amused. “Not bad…” She says.

“Mine are still working. But this is weird. It says I have skill points to spend?” Nickie says.

Serah raises an eyebrow. “That’s weird. Did it register a level up while we were away?” She asks.

“Maybe.” Nickie says.

“I don’t seem to have any.” Serah says.

“Hmm. Maybe you didn’t work hard enough? Do you feel you got any experience from gardening? Did you learn anything?” Nickie asks.

“Hmm. I don’t know. I guess I learned to just let things happen. Gardening is kind of like that, I guess. You can care pretty hard for the plants, but sometimes you can smother them. And sometimes you kind of just let them do their own thing.” Serah says. “But whatever. I’m just glad it’s working.” She says.