Talk to everyone. Walk back to Olvia and start hitting up all the NPCs and their quests. Then go to, uh, the next "city" to the east (starts with a V... Viedal?) and talk to everyone. Then head down to Heidal and talk to everyone.
The game does you a disservice by having you chase the stupid black cloud guy around and pouring xp on you like water (encouraging you to move to tougher places). Between those three places, you'll get a quest to learn about housing, a quest to give you a donkey, a quest for a free laborer and how nodes work, a quest to learn the marketplace, a quest to learn how horse taming works, a quest to learn how the crafting UI works, a quest for hunting and gathering meat, etc. I blew past 90% of this my first time through. Even if any mobs are trivial for combat xp, you'll also get a bunch of contribution points that you'll use to rent housing, connect nodes, employ your workers, etc. Plus some free tools, a musket, scrolls and other stuff. Also, all those NPCs you speak to "unlock" themselves for the conversation minigame you use to build up Amity (approval) with NPCs to unlock other quests or store items. So it's always worth it to speak to any named NPC you meet (you can usually skip the "Villager", "Farmer" or "Traveler" types)
The explanations aren't fantastic but the game does do a better job than I initially gave it credit for. But it also seems hellbent on making sure you never actually get to make use of them.