You'll basically have to grind through each section of the map because the difficulty increases steadily.
Around the horn and you'll find a little hut that looks a bit different.
Shanty has some gear you'll need. You'll also want to grind for a generous amount of Cure and Cure 2 before heading into the caves.
It's going to take a lot of battles to save 700 gold for the armour and sword. I'm grabbing a bunch of cures too.
Cures are cheaper in the town you start in so you might find yourself going back to stock up. You can also sleep in your bed to restore HP.
You'll want to grab a bunch of Cure 2 also for the boss battle in the cave. You can find 5 of them in a chest in the cave. There's also a very useful Cure scroll and some gold.
After defeating the cyclops you emerge from the caves. Seaside can be seen and that's the next stop.
