[quote name='Blind the Thief']I was at level 40, about 65 hours, and finally beat it late Thursday night/early Friday morning...and all I'll say is: one of the best RPG endings EVAR.
...time to do the Dragovian stuff![/QUOTE]
Ok, you might appreciate the following info then. Some background: I beat the game around 82 hours, I think at level 43 or so. Then I went on to the Dragovian stuff, gained a few levels doing the normal progression of that, then attempted the Dragovian trials. The first 2 weren't too bad, but I got stuck for a bit at the Silver dragon. I finally beat him and then the Gold was easy. Then I got absolutely destroyed by the Darksteel, which is the second to last one. So I decided to spend a while power-levelling.
As discussed previously I made some elevating shoes, which may add exp. when walking around. Here are the results of my power-levelling in the slime hills (near the tower) last night:
Started off with some piddly blue slime/dark slime battle that levelled Hero to 53, so apparently I had stopped one battle short of levelling the previous session.
Then I got the following exp. points, running in between each battle (so the shoes would work):
1300
4224, Jessica -> 51
261
1357
507
0
30010
397
10050, Angelo -> 53
10050
261
4693
5487
507
89
330
0
0
89
330
507
6890
2972, Yangus -> 55
30010, Hero -> 54
Those of you accustomed to fighting metal slimes can probably recognize what some of those battles were
.
So, I participated in 24 battles, running in between. This all took 27 minutes. Then I continued on for another level, and was cursed with very bad luck finding liquid and king metals. It took me 47 minutes to gain another level.
The total exp from level 53 to 54 was 110321 (though with that 30010 at the end the actual might have been a bit less). The total exp from 54 to 55 was 121995 (though again I finished with a 20100 exp battle, so it might be less). It seems that it is around 100,000 to 110,000 to gain levels. This does not count any levelling the shoes may have done while running.
Hope this info helps
.