Since the word “ancient” is in quotes I assume you mean items no longer unavailable. Yep, happened to me a few times but I typically discard those on sight.
If you meant ancient rune I prefer to go for crafting/knitting. My questing is at level 1 after reincarnation and to level it up I have to kill five reapers. No idea what those are but the name sounds scary enough thus my best bet is to train item creation skills. This sounds way easier than delving deep into underworld hoping to meet reapers.
Oh, one should be also powerful enough to beat said reapers once found – right now even one ghost or flame demon is challenge for me. Tentacles are unbeatable and dust devils nearly so .