Level up your leather gear in the meadows first, and be back at your base before dark. Eat 3 different foods. Make a bow and some wooden arrows and practice.

build a fence around a copper node and dig it out, they go deep underground. The fence will keep the rifraf out while you work and also muffle the noises from mining.

Craft a stagbreaker (hammer) and clear out some crypts to get cores so you can build a smelter and kiln.