Instead of immediately leaving to find the Staff Of Life as your first task, go to the town of Kelvin. This town is located in the far north-east corner of the continent. Several magic items and experience points may be found at this location.
Easy experience points
Defeat the veteran knight after leaving the first town to collect his chain mail and 40 experience points. Save your game to obtain a password for this point in the game. Reset the game and select the "Continue" option. Accept the displayed password to resume game play at the point where the knight was encountered. Defeat the knight again to collect his armor and experience points again. Repeat this process to gain experience and extra armor that may be sold.