Edit: for Gothic 2

I'm at lvl 5 with 29 str (raw) and 25% 2h carrying a judge's staff. Haven't joined the militia yet. What if, just to speed things up, I go to the Valley of Mines, do some level grinding, and come back to Khorinis for more grinding & selling skins with respawned critters, then meet Lord Hagen and go back to the VoM to resume the story.

It just seems to me that the mission is to meet Hagen and get the Eye of Innos. All the questing around Khorinis is taking too long and seems like a lot of sidetracking. I want to avoid doing all the merc and mage quests just for xp and get on with the story.

That's not possible. :) To enter in the Valley of Mines, you need a key, and this key will be given to you only by Lord Hagen, but you must first become a novice or militiaman or mercenary to meet him.

Technically, a lot of bugs/exploits will allow you to either meet him or go into the VoM as guildless (in the unmodded game), but this can eventually cause more and more bugs (some even gamebreaking), so I heavily do not recommend you doing that.

That's right, you can even go in the Valley of Mines almost at the beginning, but then you'll have problems going back to Khorinis. There are many exploits, like that, but it's a risk for the gameplay.

Yes. Plus, I don't know how experienced Gerin is, but unexperienced lvl5 player can have big problems even surviving in the VoM.

Well then, I suppose I will stick it out longer and do these buggery quests. Thank you all for your input.