Oh my God! Don't complain about .5-1% per kill. You will be dancing for joy if you're pulling off .5% per kill after level 40.
The ultimate way to level up a new character is to transfer items to him from your existing characters. I transfered over a +7 blade (strongest weapon a novice can use), cap, shield, boots, jacket, and for after he attained his new job I gave him a stiletto +6 and some nice Mage items... I know you can do it, Lethal. You have enough characters.
If you're building up a new character from scratch then yeah, it'll take another couple of hours per level, but that's still not a huge dillio. Just get through it. The *hard* part is getting up to about job level 15 as a Mage, before you can take on the big xp givers like Ants and Willows.