Not that I found. You definitely can go do what you want but are soft locked by your power. The first thing you need to do is find the blacksmith's key (which is outside the town). Then you can walk out of the town and go left across a bridge and that's your first dungeon. There is another one if you were able to walk straight forward from the town. There is also a cave with a nasty lich off to the side of the previous mentioned dungeon. There is high-leveled dock workers behind the town. As well as high-leveled bandits in the town. Lastly, if you go left, and turn left before the bridge there is two paths. One will go down a crevasse with a soft-lock by a chain-link fence the other is through a tunnel to the WIP area that is not finished. From what I have found there are 4 followers(the raving fan, bunshido, mad chimera, foreman.) You'll get items from the dungeons and weapons or gear from enemies. You can purchase armor from the blacksmith for cheap early on but as you grow the armor will not fit you anymore and requires you to infuse it with materials to make it stretch to fit you.
I'm not sure if you are required to have completed the blacksmith quest, but his anvil is behind him, or his house. You'll interact with "upgrade equipment". It's kinda clunky but you will put in the item you wish to upgrade. In the purple box is what you put in, and the arrow to the gray box is what comes out. Once you have selected an item to improve you can then put applicable upgrade materials into the top 8 squares. They are locked to the color of the item, or stat. Say, to upgrade the breastplate you can upgrade it with any blue item like another breastplate, or broken swords, or blue metal scrap/bar, essence of legs/bust, and even ability crystals. The game's scope is quite limited right now so just doing dungeons will award you with significant experience and loot. Once you have the item you can upgrade it quickly. Armor is cheap and fantastic to use early on. Just find random Pokémon battles in the long grass. Get money or sell stuff you get. A full set of armor is like 100 DD. After a while you will outgrow it unless you upgrade it but it can be more of a hassle then it's worth as you level up so fast.