I have a thought about how to improve my chances of surviving the Terrible Road. Wanted to check with experienced players.

Monsters respawn once the party camps three times.
As far as I know, this applies only to the general area. That is, camping in the monastery does not produce respawns in the Arnika road.

My question is whether this still applies once I have [I]entered[/I] the Arnika road.

Suppose I:
1) Leave the monastery.
2) Proceed partway down the road.
3) Retreat to the monastery.
4) Camp while within the monastery.
5) Do this three times.

Will the monsters of the Terrible Road respawn after my third retreat/camping within the monastery?

...I realize the monastery's monsters will do so but I'm not concerned about that.

Monsters on that Road will keep spawning no matter if you rest or not (that was one of the reasons I resorted to cheats - enemies keep coming, you gain levels and enemies become unkillable because of level scaling).

Best way to deal with road is to suppress leveling. Only press "Level Up" when you really feel the need to do so. While you suppress leveling, you keep raising your skills by use.

I think it is safe to enter Arnika at level 3-4, but don't enter it at level 6+.

Here's an oddity to report.

I tried retreating to the monastery, came out and--

No monsters. None. The whole way to Arnika, not a single monster.

Before retreating to the monastery I had gotten as far as the house at the north end of the road, and fought monsters that far.

Then retreat, camp inside the monastery, come out, and ---empty road as far as Arnika.

Statistical fluke, perhaps? Interesting even if so.

That's interesting. Maybe I should try that sometime.

Incidentally, there is a safe place to camp right near the Monastery's exit. From inside the Monastery, walk through the left side of the doorway. It will look solid, but at the intersection of the door with the left side of the doorway, you can go through and end up out-of-bounds. Once there, you can rest safely. Just don't go too far or you will fall through the ground and the game will decide that your party has been crushed and give you the game over screen.