You can upgrade your dagger and bow and really kick ass with both once you gain some levels.
You are unbeatable at level 30 with your upgraded dagger and bow.
Its just a grind until you get to go up with the 10000 exp points bandits then it goes really fast to level 30.
As soon as you can upgrade to bronze then silver along with upgrading your bow with Tia's quest and your good to go.
Just takes time.
Dunno why are you answering to my comment with an advise on that, mate, but thanks I guess. It's not like you have known I have already max level and best gear possible.
I was just agreeing with Evangelion about sword not being simple lump of iron and requiring some training in order to use properly, but pointing out the funny, at least in mine opinion, irony of it, as MC is constantly running into fights with tougher (orcs) and well armored (brigandines) enemies, in which sword won't be as good as that simple lump of iron (mace).
You see, sword is rather expensive, thus prestige, weapon of self defense. Expensive, because it require a lot of materials and work. And for self defense, because it's light, easy to carry around, quick to draw and you can do pretty much anything with it as long as you had proper training with it. It's, as the popular saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none.
Yes, sure, you can cut with it, thrust with it, block with it and even use it to fight armored foes by half-swording (grabbing sword in the middle to have better aim with the tip and to not bend the blade, or turning it around and grabbing blade in both hands to use it as improvised mace or pick, depends if you hitting with pommel or crossguard), but other wepons are not only better at those things, but require less training and are cheaper to make and maintain.
Mace is capable of dealing blunt force trauma to unarmored (orcs) and armored (brigandines) opponents alike. Sure, it has less reach (But with half-swording you have the same if not less, and you also have one hand free), it's harded to control, but it's way cheaper to make and easier to maintain.