You asked whether what you proposed is a grind or not. This was my way of telling you, yes what you proposed is a grind. Why did you think it could possibly be otherwise? Advancing statistics to reach some new threshold in the absence of underlying causality is a grind. So my suggestion to you, is to think about where your fireballs are actually coming from.
IMO Grinding is effortless way to make some progress in the game.
In many cases it's skill/time tradeoff.
I'm proposing system where you need to put some effort into leveling.
Where is the line that separate grinding from non-grinding activities in a game?
If this is an action-rpg game, for example, you kill monsters anyway.
Killing monsters is part of the game.
Many MMOs have 'kill x things' kind of quests. So these games are apriory 'grind-enabled'?
What if x is 3 and monsters are really tough? Is this still grinding?
What is the difference in killing x monsters to get access to next location and
killing the same x monsters to level up skill or complete quest?