Start by focusing on major and minor skills since they both help you level up now with major ones moving faster. When you've made enough progress in your skills, find any bed to rest and level up - that's when youll get 12 virtue points to work with. The nice thing is, you can put these points into whatever attributes you want up to three of them which makes building your character way more flexible than before. Makes sense to focus on attributes that match the skills you use most though since youll naturally get better at those faster.

The game tells you when you hit different skill levels like novice and apprentice which is pretty helpful for tracking progress. Something cool about the new system is you dont have to stress about maximizing attribute bonuses anymore since the +5 cap is gone, just play naturally and put points where they feel right. You still improve stuff the usual way like swinging swords to get better at combat, but now you wont get punished for using whatever skills you want along the way. Way more relaxed than having to micromanage everything like in the old version.