As a SCH who has recently done this same road myself, this was what I did, starting with full AF and the level 44 GC weapon.

>DF runs for Wanderer's Palace. You can't speedrun it, so just take your time and have fun.

You goals in WP are:

Darklight Grimoire to replace your weapon (drops off the Tonberry King)
Warlock gear to replace your AF.
Philosophy Tomes to purchase, first and foremost, the Darklight Cowl of Healing and the Darklight Breeches of Healing. Those two will give you an enormous stat boost.

Once you have those two pieces, the weapon, and Warlock gear everywhere else, that is a reasonable point to start your Relic quest. Once you unlock and clear Amdapor Keep, you should run it several times for the Strategos gear to replace your WP gear and get some of the Darklight Accessories. At that point you're geared enough to finish the Relic quest.