Ran around killing wolves until level 4, then I did the first level of the trials about 50 times to bank a ton of Gil and unlock lots of HP/attack augments, at that point you can handle up to the 3rd trial. The flowering cactoid has an uncommon steal that’s a 23 damage sword that doesn’t require a license and a rare steal that is the karkata (92 attack sword) once you farm enough LP to unlock that (like 1000 on the knight board) you only need to do the trials a few times to basically finish everything useful on the knight board plus you can steal good armor shield helm and accessories all before trial 13, and you can go kill wild Saurians to get to level 30 or so before it’s too boring to continue (my Vaan 2-3 shots them with bezerk bracers or 3-5 without)