been a long time but i think something like look for the plant with colour, go that way? Something like that.
A bit late, but - i did lvl 3 arena while very weak(think when i finished, i was lvl 46) , even before finishing the first quest where you have to go outside.
Actually, the EASIEST way to beat the LVL 3 Arena is by spamming quest on Crom then gain 150k Points to Achieve S-Rank Guild and she will give you Soul Sword Astria which is the most OP sword in game (100%HP Bonus, Flinch Immunity(stagger when attacked by enemies) and Damage +40%). This will help you beat lvl 3 Arena easily even if you are underleveled (I did it with lvl 40 with this Sword on Normal 1st run). It took me about 4 hours to grind for S-rank but its worth it since I literally skipping the Quest with this sword.
The arena championn's attack are very telegraphed so countering him is quite easy. I had a harder time against the Chimera now that I think about it, especially since it has a bug. If you counter the chimera's sky dive attack (the one in which the monster leaves the map for a moment to return with a sweeping attack), there is a chance that the game freezes.
As for Chimera, I dont bother counter them, i just doing hit and run because I already encountered the same issue like you said.
The grind is only important for postgame stuff, basically the time attack challenge you can unlock after clearing the game (you have to defeat a boss in a time limit to get 3 stars, but the Aries from the save file you choose has her abilities with her, so you have to grind to get the sword levels maxed and extract its abilities). You need some very specific abilities to clear the bosses, especially the final one with her hp because even with an almost perfect combo (started an aerial combo as soon as the fight started and defeated her without breaking the combo, but I probably didn't use the skills with the most damage), I wasn't able to clear it under the time limit so i had to grind the sword that gives the ability to do extra damage against her.
