A Volcanic Cave

Swim Back to Shore

You jump into the lava and swim back to where you started. And, boy, is it hot!

You lose some hit points. (hot damage)

After a certain number of attempts:

After getting stuck and swimming across boiling hot lava back to the beginning of the maze several times, it occurs to you that you could shortcut this whole stupid sonofabitch by simply swimming to the goal. However, your adventurer's instincts kick in, telling you that your final rewards will probably be lessened if you take the easy way out.

adds a new option below the Swim back to shore button

Skip this bastard maze (10)

Losing all you HP swimming back to shore gives you the following message:

You are way too weak to continue exploring this cave. You should heal up before you continue!

Notes

• Unlocked by defeating your nemesis the first time on the Secret Tropical Island Volcano Lair.
• Despite the seemingly confusing nature of the maze, there are in fact only 6 possible platform sets, each of which has 5 configurations. There is no overlap between the configurations within each set, with the exception of the goal. The configurations cycle around, with 1 leading to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5, and 5 back to 1. Maps of all 6 sets, their configurations, and solution paths exist for the adventurer who cannot figure them out, or wish to complete them without going through the puzzle solving process.
• If you choose to skip the maze, neither the heart of the volcano nor an Instant Karma will drop from your nemesis.
• There is no message for skipping the maze, you simply enter combat as if you had done it normally
• If you lose all your HP from repeatedly swimming back to shore, you gain 4 adventures of Beaten Up instead of the usual 3.
• Maze appears to be similar in nature to "Conway's Game of Life"