Bloody Cultivation[Training|Closed]

Zafar's time in Reim was a busy one, far more active and entertaining than the boredom he suffered through in Balbadd. Sure, the sea side trade city was rife with underground crime and smuggling. There was no shortage of work for one such as Zafar in an official capacity. The need for assassins was plentiful, especially since Balbadd's cabinet seats had been mostly empty when Zafar was there. Plenty of candidates wanted their competition dealt with before nominations could ever even be put forth. The gold could flow in much faster than Zafar could spend it and he had no feelings of guilt about draining the deep deep pockets of greedy and corrupt merchants. There was a certain pleasure he took in raising the prices and watching them sweat at the thought of parting with more of their precious wealth.

Alas, there was no joy or pleasure to be had from the kills he'd been contracted to do. The targets were always weak fat men with no spines. The scum of humanity with nothing but boastful guards with wild and grandiose nick names like, "Iron Fist" and "Undying Zombie" only for Zafar to quickly dispatch them as the amateurs they were in the art of killing. For someone like Zafar who craved a thrilling battle to the death, it simply wouldn't do.

Reim wasn't quite as good for business for Zafar, as the cities here had far less corruption. Especially in the grand capital Remano where prosperity was on the rise after the post-war recovery really began to kick in. But the surplus of strong fighters who venture to the coliseum in odd bloodthirsty pilgrimages made the location like some kind of holy ground for Zafar. Or at the very least, a bountiful "feeding" ground. It had been roughly two years since he'd arrived in Reim and in that time Zafar had fought many wandering warriors who had come to try their might in the great arena of Remano. Not a single one he'd challenged had managed to survive the encounter though. Most were weaklings at first, so Zafar spent the first portion of his time learning how to pick out the strong beasts from the insects.

Zafar learned to contain his bloodlust and watch the fights rather than simply ambush random warriors as they left pubs in the dead of night. At first it was difficult to hold back his destructive urges, but each time he killed a pathetic loser in seconds without so much as a fight being put up, the seed of patience grew within him. It was so much more rewarding when he suppressed his killing intent and learned to observe fighters of quality. He's come to appreciate the value of stalking them before making a move. Learning his target's patterns and quirks in order to ensure that when he did confront them, it was far from any potential witnesses where he could enjoy taking his time with his prey.


Assassin Training C -> B: 505/1000

As Zafar continued to hunt and stalk strong fighters month after month, he gradually improved his ability to pick out those who were truly strong. Even the ones who appeared weak in their coliseum matches would sometimes stand out to the assassin's keen eye. Perhaps they were holding back, or perhaps they were fighting an opponent with a weapon or style that was a poor match for their own specialties. Regardless of the reason, he would sometimes see past their perceived weakness finding strength and admiration where other people in the crowd had found cause for only sneers and boos. Sometimes, the hidden strength would be in nothing more than sheer power of spirit. Those ones in particular caught Zafar's eye in a special way.

For the fighters who proved themselves to have the true soul of a fighter, Zafar had a unique approach. Instead of hunting them down like challenging game, he'd approach them in a non-aggressive way first. Offering advice and training, nurturing their talents and then sending them off on journey's across the world with promises to return and pay him back for his "good will" some day. If they were to return alive and in one piece, they would surely be stronger. Much stronger. The thought of it each time sent Zafar spiraling into descents of depraved pleasure some nights as his mind tingled with mental pictures of how the fruit he worked so hard to cultivate might ripen.

In the meantime, by the end of his first year in Reim, Zafar had become a far more refined kind of madman than he'd been upon his arrival. The bloodlust was never gone, but it was easier to control. Boredom reared its uninteresting head far less often. Zafar mastered his skills in stalking and watching men of war and fighting through sheer practice. He sharpened his fighting skills as if he himself were a blade, eager to spill blood once drawn. The assassin was certainly cold enough to be made of steel, although that part of him never needed training. He was born and raised into that unfeeling bedevilment where the emotions and cares of others meant nothing to him. Only their blood and strength in combat had value. Once the latter was used up, he'd spill the former until life had left them.

On and on, the cycle went for months until eventually, even this game of constant hunting had begun to lose its appeal. Zafar was a fickle man after all. He needed new excitement and the constant cloak and dagger acts mean that he sometimes had to wait more than a month before he had a proper group of targets singled out and ready for harvesting. It was then that he had decided it was time to start participating in the coliseum as a gladiator himself. This is where we come to current time. Now Zafar has begun to star in coliseum matches personally. Before he wasn't keen on having his face known, but it has to benefit of allowing him to fight strong foes much more frequently without all the trouble he'd had to go through before.

Fighting in the pits for another six months bestowed an entirely new skill onto Zafar. A penchant for toying with a foe, learning how to goad them into a rage making their openings all the more visible and plentiful. In fact, he'd even come to start throwing matches whenever he faced someone whom he deemed to be honorable. It enraged them and made them come back all the stronger for their rematch.

These last two years had been quite a boon for Zafar's skill both as a fighter and as an assassin. There was no denying that.


Assassin Training C-> B: 1000+/1000