Your game progression very closely mirrors mine as far as dying. The game is very unforgiving so it basically becomes a trial & error exercise of discovering what parts of the map you can explore and which enemies you can fight based on your character level.
Oh, the PVP "invasion" crap you can turn off. There's a setting under the options menu where you can disable player invasions. I did that right away when I first installed the game.
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
