Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!
Nice to see that you got engaged into conversations with the characters. It is indeed early and taking action to explore further the plot is not implemented.
Right now, the AI is still being a bit too creative on what exists. Once this is tamed, one could imagine adding such a feature that allows you to learn about something new from chatting and that unlocks new locations (expeditions) or quests that can be done for a reward, giving you special items for trading back with the particular character that pointed you there in the first place.
Do you think that could be fun?