Time was of essence, after resting for about an hour, he was to risk it in the valley.
He planed on scrubbing off strong tree bucks and tie them together to lower himself in the valley.
Of cause he didn't know if their would be steps to climb back up on the other side, he didn't even know what awaited him in the bottom, even so it was better to die trying than die and be judged for not trying. Although he wasn't really planing on dying, but this was a risk he had to take. And for it to work he had to do it now before he became wasted.
Wishing the tournament status reveal, Dre confirmed the time as he stood up and began searching for a sharp stone, which he needed to scrub strong barks he could tie together.
'Perfect' he whispered, after minutes of searching, he finally found one, a small stone, almost spherical with quite a sharp looking edge.
Picking it up he glanced at the tree infront of him before mounting on it and immediately began scrapping.
He needed to be fast if he was to tie together a kilometer long rope of which he believed would be long enough to lower him to the bottom before the sun rose.
He didn't really come to the conclusion of a kilometer long rope on a whim. With the width of the valley being at least a kilometer, to his estimation, then the depth would've been more likely the same. Though it was quite a gamble, he didn't have any other choice.
Peeling off a bark from atop the first branch down to the roots, which he did oddly easy, Dre was a bit perplexed.
The bark was surprisingly thin for a tree wide as the one before him, though that wasn't what drew his attention and at the same time excited and comforted him. The husk was flexible, too flexible and strong enough to resist his pull.
'So this is the answer' Dre grimaced in understanding.
There wasn't really a secret passage or a bridge, this explained why the husks were so flexible and firm, it was so that one could descend the rift.
However with this information came a terrifying reveal. The forest was that of memories and death, Dre was yet to come across any sort of memories or anything that could potentially cause him his life.This meant that all the horrors of the tournament, if there were any, were going to be in the rift.
All this was something Dre had come to peace with. The game like tournaments he was so excited to participate in, everything he was so eager to experience, all of it was coming back to bite him and at this point there was no going back.
Four hours later.
Dre had piled up husks upon husks, which was nothing short of tiring while peeling them off with just a stone, and now gazed at them tiredly.
The night was still young. He intended to tie a firm rope then immediately after craft a bow and a few arrows just in case something laid in the bottom of the valley, and descend when dawn broke.
He was no genius when it came to tying tight knots, but augmented with his hunter's class knowledge it was almost a breeze strapping the barks together.
Binding, he began deliberating on his current predicament which he was yet to do, at least not in a serious note.
This strange world and the bizarre tournaments that'd made his heart race in exhilaration and still did, to an extent, now dawned on him with their unexpected turn.
He hadn't paid heed to everything that much, but now, thinking about it, this was not at all what he had in mind.
The hunger and thirst he felt was not programmed, the pain and fatigue he experienced was not an illusion, everything was real. And right at this moment if he somehow failed to cross over to the other side of the cliff and exit the forest, he was undoubtedly going to die and to make it worse, this was just the first tournament. What about the second the third, how was he going to fair? And this system that hadn't shown any change, how was it gonna help him? What if it was different from the ones he knew?
He couldn't really help the attack of questions flooding his mind. All the excitement he had was now intertwined with fear and anxiety, still he couldn't quite give up yet, he'd promised to meet up with her after getting to the top and that's precisely what he was going to do. Even if he walked straight through hell, ascending to the top was a must.
Keeping himself company, it took just over two hours to finally finish tying a killomter or so teather strong enough to hold his weight after which he began searching for descent enough branches to craft his bow and arrows as he'd already coiled a thin steady bark for a string.
In the end he found a branch that was almost a meter which wasn't too thin nor too thick and strapped the bow, after which, using the sharp stone, took ten smaller, almost straight, branches and sharpened their heavier ends.
And just as he finished he observed the rays, deep in the horizon, paint the sky with a pale yellow grow.
Having proven his hypothesis about the days being at least four hours longer than the nights which was naturally impossible, Dre rose from his position, stretched for over a minute before pulling one end of the rope and binding it tightly on one of the trees closer to the ledge before throwing it's other side in the valley.
Taking the bow, he strung it across his back using a sling, then tied the arrows tightly together and strung them across his waist using a bark to act as a belt.
"Here goes nothing." Mumbling, he tested the makeshift rope before beginning his descent.