“Damn that's good, thanks a ton for the food Emily.” I comment.

“Oh it's no problem,” Emily said. grabbing the plate in front of me and adding it to the small stack in her hands.

“So you took down an entire group of lowlifes by yourself, how in the afterlife did you do that?” Alix asks.

“I got a class that allows me to manipulate energy.” I say.

“That must be some class,” Emily adds while walking into the kitchen and starts doing dishes.

“Yes it must, what kind of class is it?” Alix asks.

“It's called Energy Manipulator. I can basically use any form of energy I want. I can also use spirit energy from the air,” I answer. Playing with a napkin, folding and unfolding it in different ways.

“Energy Manipulator?” Alix says, looking thoughtful for a moment before continuing, “ how did you get a class like that?”

“I don't even know how to get classes to begin with. I just got a ping from the system and accepted it, I didn't really have another choice.”

“You get classes by doing things or making something. For example, by making my sword I unlocked Warrior and Swordsman classes, I declined both. but after I defeated a powerful enemy with my sword, I got the Sword Master class.”

“I should have gotten sword classes for making a katana?”

“Yes, but I think something else you did triggered your class to appear instead of the others.”

Looking back I guess the obvious answer would be when I removed the energy off the handcuffs. I can't think of anything else that could trigger getting a class that manipulates energy. Some things are not right here. If energy manipulation allows me to manipulate energy outside of myself, and regardless of element type then how did I interact with the handcuffs at all. When I broke the handcuffs I didn't have a class yet.

“I think It was when I broke the handcuffs, but I’m not sure how I could have without the class.”

“Usually people have to start from the beginning when gaining an elemental class. Like Jack for example, he had to start by forming slight amounts of lightning in his body. It would take days for him to make progress. When most of his spirit energy was lightning he probably unlocked the class Lightning or something similar.”

“So to turn my spirit energy into an elemental energy that would take days?”

“More like weeks. It would take weeks to turn your spirit energy into one that can remove energy from the handcuffs. Did it say how rare your class was?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“It said it was a unique class.”

“A unique class?” Alix looked surprised before changing into a slight frown, his blue eyes lowering to the table in thought.

“Yes, “ I say hesitantly. “Is that bad?”

“Well it's rare for someone to gain a unique class. Usually unique classes can only be given to those an Original deems worthy.

“So then how did I gain one?”

“Unless you know an Original, I have no clue. Of course you could have tricked me, playing pretend newbie and fooled me into letting you in.” Alix says, staring me down… “but that would be very unlikely, a plan like that would be unreliable. Even if they could guess I would do something like letting you stay with us. Even then there is no guarantee I would walk by that exact path on that exact day.”

“So… you think an Original gave me this class?”

“I doubt it, but I can't think of any other way you could gain a unique class.”

“So it's a mystery, so many mysteries.”

“Ha, must be confusing for you. Two days dead and already trying to figure out class skills and fighting a battle.”

“Is it rare for a new spirit to fight battles?”

“It used to be back in the day. Now new spirits are joining big conflicts by the thousands.”

“Why would they do that?”

“For some it's about power. By defeating your enemies you gain more spirit energy, and spirit energy is everything in this world. Many fight tooth and nail to get more of it.”

“What about the others?”

“Others don't like how the Originals are doing things.”

“What don't they like about the Originals?”

“The Originals are the oldest and strongest, it's not unusual for them to abuse their power.”

“I guess that makes sense. But what are they fighting over? You said join the fight not start a fight, which means that there's already a fight going on.”

“It's about how one side doesn't like how oppressive the other side is.”

“What do you mean about oppressive?”

“They make strict laws and even tax spirits. They often kill spirits, for good, by taxing them to death.”

“That doesn't sound good,” I say with a frown. “I think I'll go for a walk again.”

“Go for it, I know there is a lot to think about.”

Alix’s neighborhood is a lot nicer than the one I found myself waking up in. All the houses are rather large, the financial view of the neighborhood is not quite rich, but well off. Nearby is a city filled with tall buildings, colorful lights, and advertising boards.

I wonder how I'm going to achieve my goal. It seems almost impossible to speak to the living, when I can't even see them. Many things about the world are being kept secret. I'm not even sure why spirits are able to use energy in such a variety of ways. Spirit energy is strange in itself, it seems to be what everything is made of in one way or another. I guess the only way to start is to figure out the why. Why is spirit energy so important? Why am I full of spirit energy? Why do I need to increase my level to access more of it? And many more similar questions. The easy answer is to find an Original and ask them some questions, but somehow I don’t think it's going to be that simple. Another way is to play with the world myself but the system seems kind of restricting in this department. I'm limited by levels, classes, and skills.