Cleared the first map after 8 hours of play

If we're talking about the first map, for the 'Academy Honor?' thing, buying furniture and stuff for the student dorm is probably the fastest way. But my combat power isn't increasing. I still don't really know how to raise it and feel like I'm just playing based on vibes. What should I do? Is getting new teachers the quickest way to increase combat power? Anyway, I'm watching a ton of ads. The time spent watching ads is way longer. I feel like the best way is to play while doing other things, like watching videos or playing my main gacha game. I actually quite like games like this, and the hidden quests have a long timer, so it's pretty easy to play. It might not be suitable for people who want gems right away in a day or two. My daily quests are always around 400 gems...