The Tempura Diaries: Screw The Shield!

To My Dearest Ebbie,

So how has your Christmas vacation been? First of all I'd like to greet you a Merry Christmas. I sent you something in the mail and you'll definitely like it, I'm sure of that. Now that I've sent you my present for you, make sure you send mine, alright? Good. Anyway, let me tell you something interesting that happened the other day. I was on a little trip to Libra via the Smoldering Swamp until one of those Fake Santas appeared and stole my shield. It ran so fast that I was persistent enough to chase it all the way to Valid Raeth.

Using Toby as my aerial eye, I was able to track down the Fake Santa and my shield. Just when as I was about to lash my anger at him, a large shadow loomed behind me and there he was, the commander of all skeletons, Marduk. The Fake Santa made an evil grin as I realized this was a trap. This must be Marduk's form of revenge the last time Zak and I escaped from his clutches.

I'll cut to the chase because you might be in a Christmas party or something. I got this from Marduk after I beat him to a pulp.

I've heard this is pretty rare, and I still wanted to get my shield back. However, the Fake Santa successfully made his escape, and I was no longer able to track him down. I felt so bad that I kept punching this wall in a random back alley. That shield was worth a fortune!

When I marched into the Libra marketplace however, merchants kept pestering me if I was selling the Skeleton Bandage I had. It doesn't offer much defense, however I feel like I can focus more on evading and attacking enemies now that I don't have a shield to worry about. I can always block with my sword, so I guess this was a rather fateful encounter in the end.

I still have a backup shield anyway, although I prefer using this one-handed stance for now, just like my novice warrior days. Lightweight, and free fighting style.