I had some ideas...

What if instead of only dropping random plant-life and cans of oatmeal , the creatures in the wild occasionally dropped Gem Dust? Say a 5% chance of this kind of drop?

You could merge dust piles at the Blacksmith to make the lowest-level gems. To keep it from being easily exploited, each pile of gem dust could take up one inventory slot, instead of stacking.

Everyone in the game has Apprentice this, Hopebringer that... I would like to see Unique weapons (ranging in power from weak to godly) that are dropped at random (low chance) only by fighting critters in the wild. It doesn't have to be over done. One new item drop could be added per month, even, and it would break the monotony.

Thanks for listening. Fun game, DEVs!