[5e] My new group consists of 6 relative beginners (including myself) and a 1st time DM. We just finished our second five-hour campaign and our characters had only accumulated 225 exp...so we were still level 1. Everyone in the group gets along really well and we have tons of laughs, but it's been kind of nuts being stuck at level 1 when I'm accustomed to reaching level 2 within like...20 minutes of getting started in a new campaign.

I asked the DM for a discretionary bump up to level 3 for everyone since the campaign has been very light on combat so far, and she said she'd bring us up to level 2 but that we haven't "done much" to earn the exp to reach level 3. Which is frustrating for me because the only combat we had in the entire five-hour session last night was 5 PCs and 1 DMPC vs. a single giant spider. Two of us got a turn in before the thing was dead. So now I'm sitting here ten hours in, not even at level 3 yet, wondering where all this exp is going to come from when the leveling requirements really start getting steep.