Mina was still at the starting village and still at level one due to not yet accepting the village chief quest. The reason that other people do not venture to all the areas of the starting village is because there was not much there during beta. Another reason is that those who have gotten something good never talk about it.
In the end, the starting village was dubbed the tutorial village with no interesting content on it. Due to others already reaping the early benefits, there was not much left on the starting village. The event items present there are basically the ones you need time to get. Like Adrian, who spent numerous hours to just tame Sirius.
Although it was not a bad thing as the harder to get then the greater the reward. Since one of the five Asmodian races has been chosen, the script for each race has been changed. The change was subtle so that even newbies who read the forums will not know of the difference.