hi! on my first playthrough as isla the scholar, it was impossible to progress past the first stage of archive depths because some glitch made that level have high level enemies. on my second playthrough as isla the enemies were normal and i was able to progress without trouble.
i think it might've been the enemies i was fighting at the end of my previous playthrough as the farmhand and they somehow carried over? apologies for not knowing the names of the enemies-- on my first playthrough as isla, i was fighting lots of red impish creatures, big rocky creatures, and small purply creatures. they were high hp and damage to the point that isla died of old age before i ever beat the first archives depths level. when i replayed, isla's first level just had slime creatures that were very easy to beat.