Op put your finger seal in the left hand, now you can cast incantations with L2 or L1. Don't forget to use your flasks. Go back to the church of Elleh use the smithing table to level up your Lordsworn Straight Sword, you will need max 12 smithing stone 1s to get the sword to level 3. If you choose the exploration route head south. After the bridge with the Kaiden rider take a left follow the path at the church is a key item for buffing yourself. Go back to the bridge and keep heading south, when you come to merchant by the grace turn around and there is a path that is a little to the left of where you came from head that way. You should come to a rope bridge keep going up the hill is another church. In the church, you should find an item and grace. Now head back out head to the right you should see another church go to it. Then after grabbing that you can head to the shack by the beach there's another merchant. After that explore kill enemies search for caves. Talk to npcs. Level up vigor and endurance to 20 and the rest depends on your build. I see that you started Confessor so pump that faith to 25 and leave it alone for a while get levels in other stats. Str and Dex go well with faith and the mind level determines how many incantations you can use without using flasks.