1-4 "Town", a peaceful tune (and slower remix of the town theme from the first game), plays. Maxim walks into the town from the entrance in the south, crosses a bridge across the stream, enters the item shop, and walks up to the counter.

Tia, the woman from the opening with shoulder-length blue hair and wearing a pink dress, walks in from the back room and steps up to the counter.

That's right, the unit of currency is ＧＯＬＤ. I find that amusing... Anyway, although monsters drop money directly, as in most games, this scene seems to imply that there's something like a bounty system as the in-universe justification for combat earnings. Though jellies aren't normally worth nearly that much.

命にはかえられん (inochi ni wa kaeraren) plays with the idiom 背に腹はかえられぬ (se ni hara wa kaerarenu), which means having to sacrifice something else to protect something important. As one Japanese idioms site explains it, the belly is very important, so to protect the belly, one would sacrifice the back if needed. Here, Maxim substitutes 命 (inochi, life) for 背 (se, back), so it would seem he's saying that they consider lives more expendable than (considering the context) money.

Tia walks around the counter and approaches Maxim.

Tia looks off to the side...

...sways a bit away from Maxim...

...then back towards him.

Tia walks a bit away, frustrated.

Protagonists being romantically oblivious is a common trope, but sometimes I wonder if he's not just trying to avoid having to tell her he's not interested.

She runs back over to him...

...shoves the money at him, and runs into the back room, slamming the door.

Also, that 120 gold? Now that you have control, checking the menu shows you have exactly that. It's a nice little touch, actually.

Well, no use sticking around. Let's start by talking to this little girl outside Tia's shop.

Just the opposite, really. People are weird like that sometimes. Maybe you'll understand when you're older, kid.

There's also a bit of background information on Maxim to be had.

Elsewhere in town, a woman in the spell shop explains the magic system.

In the first game in the series (which actually occurs about a century later), attack magic hits either one target, one group of targets, or all targets. This game does away with that and lets you pick any combination you want with any spell, at the cost of dividing the effect between the targets, and applies to healing and effect spells as well as attack spells. The only limitation is you can't mix enemy and ally targets on the same casting, though why you would want to...

This is still the only game I've played that lets you do things like focusing a healing spell on exactly two party members of your choice out of a group of four, or picking out just the enemies weak against fire when casting a fireball, and it can do a lot to make your magic use more effective.

Maxim starts to head out of town when a generic old man stops him.

The old man leaves the town ahead of Maxim.

攻略 (kouryaku, which roughly refers to capturing an enemy holding in battle or triumphing by means of a skillful attack) is also a common name for what English-speakers normally call walkthroughs or strategy guides for games.

1-6 "The Earth" plays on the world map. Within the cave, 1-7 "Cave" plays. The old man stands inside the cave, waiting for Maxim.

As Maxim approaches it, the Jelly occasionally moves, but only when he takes a step. 1-8 "Battle #1" plays during the battle, and during all normal battles.

Maxim's weapon of choice is a sword. His combat abilities, compared to the other player characters, fall in the average range in almost all respects. He's neither sluggish nor swift, is strong and tough but not exceptionally so, can use magic but only moderately well, and has similarly average magic defense. For whatever reason, he can't use fire magic, but can learn most other spells as the game progresses, except for those that involve teleportation (probably more to limit your ability to get around in the early game than for any other reason).

The only unusually high attribute Maxim has is GUT, but it has no obvious effect and isn't explained anywhere that I can find. The most common claims are that it affects how quickly IP goes up (more on IP later) and that it protects against status changes and instant death. From a role-playing standpoint, it presumably means that he has great strength of will.

As I recall, Maxim starts out at level 1 with no experience, even though he's supposed to be an accomplished monster hunter, and should at the very least have the experience from the six Jellies he brought in earlier... oh well, he's got to start somewhere, I suppose.

In any case, he quickly dispatches the Jelly. 1-9 "Triumph" plays during the spoils readout.

Maxim and the old man continue into the next room. There's another jelly there.

As described, shooting enemies with the Arrow skill will immobilize them for several steps and prevent combat with them while they're immobilized.

The next room has a large crevice in the ground. The bridge across is down, though a switch sits on the other side.

The Arrow flips the switch, which raises the bridge, which lets them reach the next room. This room has a small pillar that looks movable, and a button in the floor.

The door opens when Maxim stands on the switch, but closes as soon as he steps off.

Maxim does so, and pushes the pillar onto the switch, opening the door. As he's about to leave to the next room...

You get this alternate lead-in instead if you foul up the puzzle by pushing the pillar into a wall:

You get this extra line if you fouled up the puzzle by pushing the pillar into a wall:

Maxim and the old man continue into the next room. This one has no obvious path to the other side, but there are arrow markings by a lower section.

Maxim hops off, and continues to the next room. The old man follows. There are a few monsters roaming around.

This room has a larger variety of monsters. Different types of monsters have different movement patterns on the dungeon map. Some react to how Maxim moves, while others ignore him, like the randomly-moving Red Jellies. Additionally, most monsters face in one direction or another. Coming up on an enemy from behind or (sometimes) the side will give the party a free round of combat before the enemy can act, but be warned that the reverse also applies if monsters blindside Maxim.

Maxim beats all the monsters, and the door to the next room opens. This one has lots of grassy barriers littering the ground.

Maxim cuts down some of the grassy growth, finds a switch, and steps on it to open the door to the next room. This one has a pot and two small platforms of some sort on the ground. A wall bars further progress.

Aside from its obvious applications for puzzle solving in cramped spaces, swiveling in place doesn't count as an action, and can sometimes help with outmaneuvering monsters.

Maxim puts the pot on the right plate, and an opening appears in the wall. Putting a pot found beyond it on the other plate opens the door to continue.

He leaves. With nothing else happening here, Maxim does too.