Cat Quest

Since you're hardlocked at level 1, the only way to improve your stats is through items. Get this modifier and Stronger enemy modifier (if you're confident, grab Nine lives modifier as well for the Old Master armor set piece). This will change enemies on the Furbidden Fields to golden mimics, rewarding lots of gold on kill.

Try to kite and farm weaker enemies until you get a decent amount of gear from rolling 50 gold chests, then farm the golden mimics to roll the 5000 gold chests.

Once you're strong enough for the Golden Key quest (on founder island, south from the game's starting point), do that quest and then you could go grab the legendary equipments to continue with the main quest.

Secret Cave (Far up north, on the icy islands, entrance looks like a bush): Enemies here are invisible and lays trap, but easily avoidable. At the end of the cave, walk all the way East on a straight line until you see the second golden chest. This chest gives Willpower weapon, boost melee damage.

Hidden Cave (Eastern part of the map, down south from Death isle, near the Dark Dragon location from main quest): Go to the area where there are two red dragons, bait an attack from one of them and then walk all the way East on a straight line until you see the golden chest. This chest gives Faith headgear, boost magic damage.

Lonely Cave (Near the king's town, on an island in the middle of a lake): Set traps and activate berserk while kiting the enemies here. Take the chest, gives Courage armor, boost health.

With these gear, you should be able to either farm faster to get equipments to your playstyle preference, or go on to do the main quest.