Runes of Magic US / AU

my gathering skills all reached level 20 in the first zone outside Varanas
then, they wouldnt raise there cuz i needed the next tier to gather, to keep raising my skills

so, i went to aslan looking for the next tier materials and i found oak wood
i figured the oak was the next tier and would start rasing my skill as i cut it
but i get zero skill raise, een though i get the wood
so, is the tiers for wood, ash willow maple oak???

is the problem that my character is only level 18, under my gathering levels of 20??
or, is the limit for free playing a maximum of level 20 gathering skills?
sorry but all i asked ingame couldnt understand this issue either
i really want to be a gatherer, so any help would be much appreciated

ok, i went to east varanas and i saw the 3 npcs
they had no "!" over their heads, but the guys next door did
so, i had to get them 20 ash, 20 zinc, 20 demon grass
ok, so i did that
then, the 3 npcs had "!" over their heads
but they still dont offer any over 20 skill levels
all that was added was my option to abandon" my current skills and that doesnt sound right
so i didnt click that

so then i ask for help in zone channel
some guy tells me to go back to starting island
so, now im there and i have absolutely no idea what to do

the npcs at east varanas talk about the 0-20, 20-40, 40-up thing but they dont explain where you actually get those choices
its extremely frustrating cuz ive spent over 4 hours ingame trying to get this happening
theres no yellow "!" marks anywhere in east varanas
so, any ideas on what i should do now?
as i said, i parked at the start island, cuz running there took me almost 20 minutes
and i dont wanna run back and forth anymore trying to solve this riddle
i just wanna go gather and raise skills

ok issue resolved
i went to aslan after giving the npcs the 20 of each material and my skills are now going up with every gathering
so, seems those quests auto-reset the level 20+ gathering skill levels
thanks everyone