47 - Dissipation

Jack saw David's suffering and laughed.

Although he was thankful to be saved from more playtime with Angelica, he also knew David only did it because he didn't like Jack playing with her.

He did take a little bit of offense at that, so he enjoyed David's suffering as revenge.

"How could you... This betrayal came too quick." David muttered as he stared at his daughter's smug face.

Angelica heard her father mumble something so she looked at him curiously.

David decided to be the bigger man and graciously forgive her for her betrayal, so when he saw her look at him he smiled at her, pretending that his heart was not just shattered into little tiny pieces by her.

"I love you, Daddy!" Angelica felt her prank was a bit mean so she gave David some sweetness.

David immediately smiled genuinely when he heard her, he got to and held his arms out expectantly.

Angelica didn't bully him more and she stood on her chair and hugged him.

"how about daddy plays with you now?" David asked as he carried her and Angelina tightened her arms that were already around his neck from the hug.

"Okay!" Angelica agreed.

Jack watched this with a weird face.

'This gut is whipped...'

'She sold him out and brought him down before she lifted him back up.'

'Can this be called Stockholm syndrome?' Jack wondered as he saw how happy David was when Angelica said she loved him.

As he ridiculed David, he watched them leave to go to the living room.

"Don't forget dinner is gonna be ready in a few hours."

Sarah saw them leave so she called out to give them a time frame.

"Got it!" David replied as he left to play with his daughter.

....

Later that night after dinner the family was having a movie night and Jack was wondering what he can do to level up.

He felt that he was just delaying the inevitable.

He didn't leave the family because he was scared of the unknown and he couldn't scare them as much anymore so his experience gain rate dropped.

'Well, although I think that way, it couldn't honestly be a combination of things...'

'Like it becoming harder to level simply from leveling.'

'Maybe I should try and repeat an incident and see how much or even if it decreases...' Jack thought of an experiment to start.

He could just repeat the same thing every day or multiple times a day and check how much he gains for it to see if it decreases over time.

'Let's start this experiment after I level because I'm already close, to begin with.' Jack thought as he decided to spend his energy right now as much as he could to level up.

Jack also wanted to experiment with his innate ghost ability and see how much he could push it.

Like how loud he can project his voice or how much mist he could produce.

Also how bright an orb or how dark a shadow he can make.

Could he spend more energy to do more than normal?

'Let's try it.' Jack thought.

With his idea in mind, he walked to the family sitting on the couch.

He willed himself to appear as a mist and then he tried to focus his will and intent to have it spread out throughout the room.

He made a face like he was trying to take a huge shit and it wouldn't come out.

The family had no idea there was a mist behind them that looked to be billowing up.

Eventually, after Jack concentrated and picture what he wanted to do vividly in his mind, his mist form did as he wanted and started spreading through the room.

Almost as soon as he succeeded due to their close proximity, the family was alarmed and Sarah and David made sure Angelina had their hand.

"What's going on?!?!" David panicked.

"Where did this mist come from?!?" He looked around frantically but he couldn't even see the walls of the room or the TV anymore.

The mist was thick and could barely be seen through.

They could only see a few feet away.

Luckily the family was all sitting on the couch so they didn't panic too much about having to find each other.

Jack was exhilarated, if he could do this maybe he could even increase his strength to superhuman levels with enough energy.

Suddenly the mist started dissipating and Jack felt an overwhelming weariness come over him.

"Oh..." Jack said as he checked his system.

[

Name: Jack

Race: Ghost (Phantom)

Lvl: 5 (84%)

Energy: 0/90

Regen: 12/h

Abilities: Spirit healing

Haunt location buff:

- none.

]

Doing that had exhausted all of his energy that used to be full.

However although he did notice the mist dissipating, it still lingered for about a minute before it was completely gone.

The couple was completely confused about what just happened.

"Maybe Jack did it?" Sarah concluded after thinking about it.

If something weird happens it is almost completely safe to assume it was Jack, she thought.

If Jack knew what she was thinking he would be extremely indignant but luckily she didn't say it out loud.

David accepted that answer and nodded while relaxing a bit.

Angelica didn't have much of a reaction, she just looked around curiously.

The family eventually sat back down and continued watching TV while thinking about what had just happened.

"Maybe we should report this to the guys when they come..." David broke the silence.

"Good idea. In fact, why don't we buy a camera to put out?" Sarah agreed and then suggested.

"Yeah, they would want evidence, but can we afford it?" David nodded but then hesitated after more thought.

"Hmmm... Let's ask for suggestions when we see them again." Sarah said.

"Sure." David said.

The family then went back to watching TV.

Meanwhile listening to their conversation was Jack who collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.

'Not to self, do not spend too much energy at one time.' He made a mental note, it seemed that if he just forced himself to do such a thing it used up not only his energy but his willpower as well as he felt sluggish and noticed he was more transparent than usual.

He didn't even know he could feel tired after he died and was worried.

He wondered how he would recuperate.