[Agema]

Unless the indies you're looking for are usually plentiful N1, I don't think any major tactic which requires you finding indies (especially without the appropriate path to start with) is really optimal. That said, a trickle of gems will be enough to get forging going with the costs so low.

Agartha has got expensive secondary options accessing astral magic via death summons (Spectres often seem to crop up with S random) or empowerment (alchemising plentiful E gems if necessary) if indies are unavailable.