After the Demon city, speak with Flo, Ebb and Snow until they join the tavern. I recommend to collect the 20 Stones early to open the bathhouse early. It will help a lot in bossfights.
If your Hero is powerful enough we can attempt Hakan's alcohol Questline and beat the Tree Monster without the Goo-Armor to gain another 2 LvL Points. Say "NO way!!" to Chet. The fight is tough and gets much easier if you boost you HP in the bathhouse before the fight.
HP Potion are more or less useless / too weak. Your Healing Spell "bind up" only works well enough with high END, DEF and INT. With high AGI you can also try to savescum to victory.
(EDIT: Since the Overhaul of the Combat System, this fight has become even more difficult without Goo-Armor. You definitly need to visit the Bathhouse to double your HP. "Bind up" has become useless. Use your MP for Leaping Slash or Holy Fist instead. Try to deafeat him before your Lifepoints run out. If this is still not enough, return back later long after the war with improved Stats.)
I highly recommend to finish as many Quest as possible. Collect 10 ectoplasm for Meko, fullfil Chet's "New Item" Quest to buy the Ethereal Crytal Amulet, Upgrade your Weapon to maximum (+25 ATK) etc.....
And another thing: You don't need to spend all your LvL Points right now. You cannot improve your stats about 10 , so i like to save them and increase STR (or whatever your Hero's Mainstat may be) later.
You may also try out if your two emblem work and visit the Dragon inside the paintins two times:
