Difficulty Spike (Minor Spoilers)

[tezrek]

Hi there! so, right after getting the ship, I did the Ash Tower and it felt harder than before, and when I set foot on Gradla I get kill by any random encounter. Did I miss somewhere?

Should I just take a hint and run to the village? What lvl do you recommend for Gradla? I was doing mighty fine before that.

Cheers!

[Ghoul Hunter]

You missed a town called Firgol a bit south of Ash Tower (same island). It might get you a level or two. There are also the pilgrimages you can do to increase all stats by 1. I completed the game at level 18. Random encounters can be really dangerous, so it's not abnormal to die to them.