Why are the side quests so hard TT_TT everyone is level 19 and I even went as far as to change the difficulty bUT I CANNOT GET THOSE STUPID STONES that news guy annoys me so much anyway.
update: is there something i'm doing wrong in combat? i have it on easy now i don't know what happened but combat has suddenly became extremely difficult. I did leave the game for a few days but I can't seem to fight anything? honestly i want this game over and done with, spent 10 hours on the game but i'm only on chapter 3. is that normal?
The stones are not a requirement to proceed further in the story (except for the very first one). In fact, I didn't even do the last stone until the end of the game because he's not missable at all. He does give some EXP but you'll soon realize that the side quests won't be used much for EXP since you'll find a method that will give you tons of EXP off the bat. I wouldn't worry about that side quest too much. I suggest gathering EXP from the lower SQs, and then taking them to Galdin Quay inn so that you get 2x EXP for sleeping there. Example, if you have 10,000 EXP stored on your characters, sleeping there will net you 20,000 EXP instead.
As for combat, what is your issue so far? are you getting hit a lot? party members dying? you are dying easily? (squishy defense?)