[@DestinyStar] That's how I figure it.  He ran off to get ahead of everyone else and grab the easy quests and good hunting so that he could gain xp faster than the competition.  You've had Cinera training extra on her own so she'll gain a little faster.  But, there really is a lot of bonus xp to be made if you can complete quests fast enough to justify the time.

I've run into some MMO games where a monster might give you between 15 and 30 xp but a single quest can give you 200-500 plus whatever you kill on the way and a money/item reward.  A lot of quest value depends on how fast you can complete the quests.