You should be able to teleport to a few locations by pressing enter, then pressing left and right when you are selecting the location (interact with the book and visit previous locations in Milan's room) and you should be able to visit several areas. I believe there is the starter inn, the outsider inn (Bristle), cabin before mountains, cabin in the forest, cabin after Avlon, and then the one at the end of the demo. You don't need to visit them either. Whenever you reach a new area it should become available even if you don't go into the inn/cabin.
Also in the update I'm working on now there will be an upgrade item that lets you walk backwards yes.
