>>15465319
>The 1 damage fire breath looks like shit in comparison
I'm assuming you're talking about the Action you got because you picked Fire Breath as a starting feat.
That actually gets quite strong later on, but you need high Constitution (I think) for that. At a certain point, you'll get a different version that can use different elements too.
Plus, you can COOK with it. Try to blast an area that has corpses or fruits.
It's hilarious when you teach that to your pets and set their AI to use it, I had lots of fun being a Dragon Knight, riding my fire-breathing Horse in combat.
>I did read the two books, so I'm guessing that makes the skill better
If you look at the menu you get when you press V, you'll see a lot of information there. One of the columns has Stock in it. You spend a bit of that everytime you cast a Spell and you can only replenish it by reading more books for that spell. Reading more books didn't made it better, it just gave you more Stock to cast. It's just that the starting enemies have no Magic Resistance.
>what are some good starter quests?
In Vernis, you have 2 more regular quests. In the tavern where the bartender resurrected your loli, there's Shena, finest ass in the whole continent. She tells you to kill some thieves on the same town, a bit to the north in a basement. That one's easier than the slimes.
In a house nearby that hideout there's a little boy that asks you to get his dog. He's at the bottom of a Dungeon near Vernis called Puppy Cave. Beware: This shit is extremely frustrating. The difficulty gets harder the deeper you go, which will be a problem for weak casters like you. If you die, the dungeon resets and you lose whatever item you dropped when you died forever.
The damn dog dies fast and is suicidal, bringing him up is really hard if you don't have a Leash and a Stethoscope.
BETTER OPTIONS FOR QUESTING:
Near the well in Vernis, there's a noticeboard with quests. Do what you can here, move to another town when you are done.
Hunting Quests are easy when they have a green $, do those.
A lot of "I want that!" or "Birthday!" quests can be completed by buying an item from the general shop, like Mana Crystals, Earth Crystals, etc. Always check the vendor before accepting. If you have something of the same value, roughly, you can also do the "I want that!" by trading.
Same thing for "Recipe!" quests. Check the Chef nearby to see if he sells the item being asked.
Get to Yowin, the town at the middle south between 2 bridges. Get the skill Gardening. It's usefull later when you have a farm and it lets you do all Harvest Time quests. Easy money and easy platinum coins all the time, you'll just fail about the first 2 times as you train the skill.
"Before it's too late!" always pays a fuck ton of cash, do those when you need the gold since there's no risk to it. Just make sure they give you plenty of time to complete them. Check near the name for how many days you get. If they tell you to go from Port Kapul to Lumiest in 2d, you're not gonna make it.
All of that will give you plenty of cash and the PP you need to train up, which you should. If you train Performer and\or are a Pianist, the Party quests are nice as well.