"Jack be nimble, Jack be swell, Jack be hung and sleeps in hell!" you respond. You are winded and your voice is weak, but the voice hears you and laughs.
"ROSE IS RED AND SO IS BLoOd, I'LL EAT YOU WITH A SIDE OF MUD." You can smell it now, it reeks of musk and rotting flesh.
"Ladybug, ladybug, leave me alone, you smell real bad and I have knives of bone!" you threaten, readying one of your bone knives.
The voice roars and you reflexively stab upwards. Miraculously the blade connects just as the beast is leaping onto you. It slides into the creature's flesh and glowing red blood leaks out. The light from the blood illuminates the room, and you can see that the creature's sharp teeth are only inches from your face. The beast struggles and trashes, so you quickly pull out another bone knife and stab its neck before it can bite your head off. The beast howls in pain and collapses heavily onto the floor. You roll away just in time. It struggles a bit longer, then breathes its last breath.
For killing the RHYMING BEAST, you have gained 1 skill point! You may allocate it to one of the following skill trees:
(Keep track of your skills by using the handy reference chart at >>117.)
You pull out the knife from the beast's stomach. You now have Bone Knife (x9) and Glowing Bloody Bone Knife (x1). You use the Glowing Bloody Bone Knife to look around the room. The walls are too steep to climb, so you can only go deeper into the cave. You do that.
Eventually you come to an underground river. There's an old paddle boat half-heartedly moored to a rotting dock.
>>120 Get in the boat and paddle downstream.
>>224 Get in the boat and paddle upstream.