Yup that's the way!, the loan doesn't affect you in any way and let's you get the sword immediately.
It will only affect the innkeeper route in the future.
You can also buy the sword/pick and go mining since dying doesn't make you lose your ore along with milking the cowgirl which unlocks after getting the flower girl heal.
The slaver route is currently the most developed with s3x animations from the servants but I'm also trying to add a good route, unfortunately you can only unlock the golem servant atm and she doesn't have an animation.
There is currently no way to defend in combat, only getting better armor
The biggest problem with the grind is that I'm still adding progression, therefore it doesn't feel like a smooth slope upwards but a hard jump, once you a servant or magic and lvl1 armor, the game becomes very easy (I think), then I need to add ways to let the player make more money once they are there and so on.
Thank you for your insight, I appreciate if you have anymore in the future :)
No, thank you for responding! I restarted since I didn't really get anywhere the last time I played. With the knowledge I got from that first attempt (and what you mentioned in your post!) I was able to get situated pretty well. Started by purchasing the pick, and with good RNG managed to buy a sword shortly afterwards. Didn't even take the loan yet, I'm just going to ignore it until it becomes part of a route later on. Thanks again!