There are 2 quests you can do southeast of the Town of Beginnings, in the church area. They should give you enough exp to level up to about lvl 5 and learn magias that practically instakill the weaker enemies of the starting area.
Sorry for the delayed response, I've been busy lately. Also yeah, it is possible to f@ck your character up if you take too many of the perks, since most contrast with one another. Fortunately, just learning Confusing Stare is not enough for that, and it will help a lot later, when you fight multiple enemies at once.