An unexpected difficulty bump

Last night, I experienced my first wipe in the game.  And then the second and third.

I was exploring the first area, and I was easily handling the enemies I found, so I kept going deeper.  I made my way to a Demon Circle and used a crystal.  It ended up summoning Mars, the demon of the area.  I was low on HP and he just demolished me.  I tried this two more times (this time fully healed) and got the same result.  The lesson I learned from this was that I needed to grind up some more levels and get better equipment.  Perhaps I even need more party members!

With that in mind, I worked on those issues.  Used a few crystals in Demon Circles I had already beat to get gear, made it to level 5 for my main character and my fighter, and earned enough gold to rent a room to get a new character (a female elf wizard).  I talked to the manager to see how much the next room will cost and was told 5000 gp.  Ugh.  But I guess I'm finding drops off of monsters that sell for 100 gp or more, so it's not as bad.

I found my rent costs not at all corresponding to the formula I had earlier, so it's different; probably based on time and/or number of steps taken.

You unlock the Bulletin Board in the inn's hall pretty quickly.  This is the vehicle for getting quests.  These sidequests were not in the original Wizardry, but Japanese Wizardry games incorporated them at some point; I only have experience with the few that have come out over in North America.  These range from getting drops from monsters to finding particular items or defeating particular monsters.

One of the quests involves the inn's Barber/Bathmaster/whatever.  He then promptly starts getting creepy about women's bodies, something completely unnecessary.  This game pulls things like that, making it a bit difficult to unreservedly recommend it.

I suppose I should mention my party composition.  I'm currently going heavily for offense, which may or may not be something I'll regret (see: Mars attempts).  So far, it is:

Azamgil - male human gazer.  His name is taken from Star Ocean 2, and he's the main character and currently level 5.
Deslocke - male human fighter.  His name is taken from Star Blazers and currently level 5.
Lady Une - female elf wizard.  Her name is taken from the best character in Gundam Wing.  I recruited her before quitting for the night, so she's level 1.