I reached 20 exp in about 23 ticks. At 10 minute a tick, that is 230 minutes or 3.8 hours. Not long at all.
The time taken to gather EXP is random since theres just a very low chance when mining/laboring.
I gained my first EXP after a short time spent during the night, and then into the next day, morning to somewhere around 4 PM, where I finally got a single EXP.
The EXP system really needs to be switched over to a system that allows you to gather XP, and level up.
I quickly gained level 20 after getting up to 10 EXP, switching over to lumberjack, spending a full day in the server.
So really, the server starts off hard, and gets easier as you work.
This is a very painful way to play.