Good to see you got it working, but since I started composing a post, I'll drop this here anyway.
Notes about levelling:
1. You can level up anywhere you can 'Sleep' instead of 'Rest'. Staying the night for certain events also counts, the Mhen'ga Plantation, for example.
2. You don't have to increase your stats right away. There are ways to increase your stats without spending level up points, but the higher the stat, the longer it takes. Investing level up points is always one-to-one. It may be beneficial to not spend all your points if you don't need to, but keeping your main attack stat maxed out is a good idea.
3. You don't need to choose a perk right away. If, for example, you don't choose a level 2 perk, you can still choose your level 3, but you can't 'save' perks to spend on other tiers.
4. You can store enough XP for multiple levels. The amount of XP you get from a fight depends on your level compared to the enemy's level, so you can get more faster if you stay low-level. The current cap is 10.