Chapter 28

  Staging A Long Con

  “A long con can be something you develop, or something that develops organically, either way know that before you begin, they are costly in two different ways. First it costs you time, this is crucial for if you are to do it, then you might grow weary with the time commitment and jump before it is too soon to strike. It is imperative that you wait as long as possible, before making your final move. Secondly, there will always be a financial cost to the long con, one that costs you immediately upon start up, but will soon go. Be patient, if your long con is good enough, even if they leave, your mark will be back.” -Marcon on the Long Con

  “What I don’t understand?” The Female Cerusian began, her tone incredulous as she looked at the trinket that seemed to deactivate and blink out of existence on the spot.

  The trinket was still there, still firmly held within her hands, but the power was suddenly gone.

  One second, she held the glowing orb that seemed to direct the couple towards Aria. The next when they attempted to use a burst of power, or a higher dose of energy from the trinket, that is the moment the trinket died.

  The whole thing was an interesting insight into Cerusian energy sources.

  Mentally, Arla realized the reason for the item’s failure was due to a lack of resonating reciprocal energy. Reciprocal energy that should have been returned and reapplied by the original trinket that Arla now carried within her as a Tinkerer’s item.

  Arla knew these concepts, for she had been taught many of the same tricks by Marcon. Symbiotic properties of meteorite iron cut from the same asteroid that made land fall, or gemstones of power that were bisected and used in mirrored jewelry settings. There were dozens of reasons why such an effect could happen, now apparently there was also a Tinkerer’s power that could do the same.

  Similarly, Arla knew that she could use her own [Crafting- Permanent] Spirit Infusion to create a similar effect.

  Seeing the opportunity for what it was, Arla decided to test the waters.

  “Your tool is broken,” Arla stated coldly, as her bored eyes stared straight at the alien elf.

  “I can see that,” the female Cerusian began, then continued speaking in Cerusian, “you stupid half twit.”

  Arla of course just stared at her with the same expressionless face, this was a character, a role she was now playing.

  In her mind she had several scenarios playing out, all letting her account for different variables at play.

  If worse came to worse, and everything went poorly then all that would happen would be that she would go away right now, without any materials and this potential scenario would end here and now.

  Thinking carefully, Arla realized that if given the chance she could use this opportunity to link two money-making ventures into one overall package. A package that would force the students from the S-Rankers to fully commit to having their powers awoken, but at a premium.

  The second part of the plan was just in its developmental phase, there were still a few processes left to be worked out, but Arla was fairly certain that she could get the desired result she wanted.

  “If you want, I can fix it?” Arla suggested.

  This was where patience and dedication to the craft of letting the victim come to you played out. The method for luring each victim to your trap is important. In this case, Arla was playing off of the idea that a Cerusian would like nothing more than to publicly deride a human for not being able to understand the inherent intricacies of Cerusian magics. A bias that this female clearly adhered to.

  Scoff.

  “You think you could fix this? This is a relic from the…” she trailed off as her counterpart hit her.

  Oof.

  “It is a relic of our ancestors, one that has been unable to be recreated or duplicated, and you think you can just fix it? I mean do you even know what it does?” She went on, holding the now broken trinket.

  Smiling inwardly, Arla realized this is the perfect time to use her own arrogance against her.

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  “I guarantee I could do a better job than you can, as you don’t even know why your own item stopped working.” Arla stated while smiling widely, then to add insult to injury she straightening her back and leaning backward in her seat. A look of complete contentment on her face.

  This movement, the straightening of her back and leaning backwards, these were all elements to invoke an attacking posture from the Cerusian, which the Cerusian took easily.

  Leaning forward, the Cerusian female bit down hard. Not seeing the problem with showing up the human, she all but threw the broken trinket at her.

  “You think you can fix it, fine, but know that it has a failsafe feature that is designed to kill anyone who tries and fails to deactivate the trinket properly.” The female said, while dangling the trinket out of her outstretched hand.

  Pausing for a second, Arla read the expression and figured that the open threat of a kill switch was likely real, as Cerusians were not know to joke about such matters.

  Realizing there might be more than just one pattern available to discern from this, Arla just smiled an overconfident smile. One that the Cerusian all but expected from a human. One who thought that such a warning was nothing more than a bluff to scare away any would be attempts at dissecting the trinket.

  “Very well,” Arla replied, reaching out her cupped hand and waited for the trinket to drop.

  Plop.

  The minute the item dropped into her hand, an older system message popped up in her mind.

  At the message, Arla’s eyes grew wide.

  In a perfect world, Arla would create a distraction to get away, but it was clear that the Tutorial mentioned here was a one time use feature. That if she dismissed the message now, in order to get away, it would never pop up again.

  Realizing that she might need help, Arla mentally selected yes.

  Then before she knew it, a complex detailed schematic of actions, places to touch and prod appeared in her mind.

  Had this been her shop, or even her room she would have had a bevy of tools available to her. Instead though she was in the cafeteria, but there were tools here too. Well, if you knew how to manipulate the objects.

  Without even thinking about the gesture, Arla quickly picked up her fork and lightly brushed her fingers over three of the extended metal prongs. Then with the one remaining metal prong still up, Arla began to work on the intricate and small object.

  First, she undid the clasps in order, rotated the socketed gem, and then carved a line in the back of the gemstone.

  This retracing of a line that had long since been refilled with gunk and debris from the ages was cleaned out. The more gunk that Arla removed, the more the item itself began to glow.

  Seeing the glow firsthand, Arla nodded, as she would need to know the color to infuse into this object for the next stage of her plan to work.

  Moving quickly, Arla kept her nimble fingers working and moving to hide her exact actions from everyone. While everyone could see that she was doing something to the object, steps that were apparently working, there was no way for anyone to be able to replicate her actions. Particularly as she was using sleight of hand to obfuscate the true directions that the tutorial was providing.

  Her right hand, the hand that held the item was performing the actual sequence of activation and deactivation events. While her left hand did help but mostly moved around to hide the true actions being conducted by her right hand.

  In no time, the Tutorial was over and she received a message.

  There it was the catch. The part that Arla knew was almost too good to be true, and it was.

  Tingle.

  There was just one problem with this whole process, the moment she cleaned and thereby recharged and reactivated the gemstone, she felt the items that had fused with her Tinkerer’s body activated in response.

  Still Arla knew that she must continue with the scam, now that she managed to reactivate the gemstone in front of everyone. Even going so far as to show that the gemstone was glowing, even outside of its normal power setting.

  This was the reveal portion of the show. The part where you show the target and the gathered audience that everything you just did was real and above board.

  “Is this how it is supposed to be normally?” Arla asked.

  The Cerusian just stared at the brightly glowing gemstone for a moment, before finally nodding her head as words seemed to be beyond her at that moment.

  Seeing her reaction Arla too nodded.

  “Okay, I’m just going to work on the fastenings, to repair them.” Arla stated.

  As she spoke, she closed her right hand around the gemstone, closing it tightly enough that all but the faintest traces of green light shown from within her hand.

  This was the important next step, and one that required maximum focus. For the next step involved draining out the now recharged due to ambient energy Tinkerer’s Energy and replacing it with her own [Crafting- Permanent] Spirit Infusion energy.

  The process had to be seamless and for the most part it was, there was only one minor drop in power, but was quickly explained away by the shifting and regripping of the stone within Arla’s hand.

  Once everything was completed, the exchange of power and components were made, Arla received a message.

  There was a pause.

  Fortunately, this message could be paused and minimalized, unlike the Tutorial message from earlier. Seeing the wait feature, Arla didn’t hesitate to use that.

  Then taking a moment, Arla then once again revealed the glowing green gemstone. One that looked identical to the one from previous. Mainly because Arla had created a thin layer around the old stone just before absorbing it, then filled in her stone, once the other was removed.

  This wouldn’t be a permanent fix, eventually her Infused power would wear off, but it wouldn’t be any time soon.

  “So, you are good with me placing your gemstone within this setting?” Arla asked, a thin film of sweat forming on her normally smooth face. It had been a while since she had performed any attempts at trickery this complex. It was kind of fun and exhilarating to do it again, though she knew still needed to be cautious, she couldn’t help but feel that shew as now in the home stretch.

  All she had to do was get them to recommit to the stone being up to their standards, put it back in, show that it worked, and leave. She was right there, she could all but see the end of this con coming to an inevitable end.

  That of course is when disaster struck, for at the very moment that Arla could all but feel this task being over, disaster struck. Worse, it came from the target that Arla had not been expecting at all.

  “Wait, did it change?” The male Cerusian asked. The person who had been quiet all this time suddenly chose this moment to speak of all times.

  Worse, his intense stare at the stone caused the female to also question and look at the stone more carefully.

  For her part, Arla just sat there forcing her mind and body to remain calm, despite all her instincts telling her that she had been found out. That somehow these two had uncovered her deception.

  Then the female Cerusian spoke, all but confirming Arla’s worst fears.

  “I think you are right, it has changed…”