Aslan didn't take much luggage, mainly just some food and dry rations. As for a house, he could build one himself using Faerie Letters. If he needed to live in one place for a long time and the area was deserted, Aslan could also ask his dragon to fly directly to the nearest city at faster-than-light speed for supplies.
"Let's go. Let's head for the volcano. If we really find a large Machine God fragment, then we'll have to live in this region for a very long time."
To them, although the environment here looked harsh, it wasn't unbearable. At worst, they could just treat it like the environment of Great Britain. After all, the current Great Britain, having lost the boons of the Age of Gods, with its barren lands and drastically changed environment, wasn't much different from this desolate place. As for the lava problem, Aslan could now quickly forge some short-lived ice-attribute weapons to rapidly cool the flowing lava and form a path.
But before that...
Aslan raised the holy spear in his hand, bent down slightly, and aimed the tip at the center of the volcano before him. The volcano was currently spewing a constant stream of lava, which meant the inside of the mountain should already be filled with molten rock. To make it easier for him to investigate the interior, he would just punch a hole in the side of the volcano and let some of the lava out.
Thankfully, this place was known to ordinary people as an unapproachable land. Even letting the lava flow out from another opening wouldn't cause any casualties.
The silver holy spear thrust forward. A blast of silver magical energy slammed into the side of the volcano. The rock, having lost its moisture due to the high temperature and thus become easier to break, exploded directly, and lava began to flow out.
Only after the flowing lava had gradually cooled did Aslan and Melusine ascend the volcano. Perhaps because some of the lava had been drained, even the temperature had dropped a little.
Looking inside from the summit, it was just as expected. This volcano was fundamentally built up, bit by bit, from solidified molten rock. So, after draining the lava from within, a huge space had appeared. In the remaining lava, a massive, damaged robot was clearly visible.
Perhaps describing it as a robot wasn't quite appropriate, as it didn't have a complete humanoid form. It would be more accurate to say that, apart from two hands for placing materials inside, its entire shape resembled a forging furnace. At this moment, the furnace core was burning fiercely. It was precisely because of this constantly burning core that this place had become a volcano known as "The Furnace."
Even though its appearance in the game was completely different from what he saw now, even though its arms were broken off and a large chunk of the furnace was missing, Aslan could still, based on the information he had, recognize who this Machine God wreckage belonged to—Hephaestus, the god of fire and forge.
This was the wreckage of one of the Twelve Olympians! And it could even be considered complete! Although he didn't know why the body of the god of forge would appear here, this time, the harvest was far more useful than any before!
Tossing one disposable ice-attribute item after another into the lava-filled bottom, he did his best to cool the molten rock and form a surface he could stand on. Then, he attached a grappling hook and rappelled down from the edge of the summit, arriving directly in front of the burning furnace core. At the same time, he pulled out a weapon that looked like a scythe from his waist.
After infusing it with magic, the entire weapon began to transform rapidly, like a mechanical arm preparing to enter the core. However, as it got closer, the entire arm showed signs of melting. Fortunately, with the reinforcement of Faerie Letters, the melting speed wasn't fast, allowing him to finish writing all the letters before the equipment completely dissolved.
What Aslan needed to do now was to temporarily shut down the core. If he couldn't shut it down, he would seal it. At the very least, he had to lower the temperature here. Since this mechanical arm was also starting to melt, he would just use it as both pen and ink to write the Faerie Letters. In any case, the Machine God before him had been "dead" for a long time. Without its own consciousness, shutting down and sealing its core was not as difficult as imagined. After sacrificing one of his mechanical arms, the furnace core before him finally began to cool down.
Simultaneously, with the disposable weapons he had thrown into the lava, the entire volcano began to gradually cool. It was estimated that it wouldn't turn back into a paradise of lava for at least a dozen years—assuming, of course, that the underground here wasn't unexpectedly stimulated. However, Aslan would also be reinforcing the area.
From the cranes that would be used to lift the entire Machine God to the assembly laboratory where he would complete his long-cherished wish, everything would be set up here. To put it simply, Aslan was preparing to remodel this place based on a cave base from Gundam. If someone were to sneak in, they would surely get a huge shock.
After it had cooled down, Aslan landed on the ground formed from the solidified lava. He couldn't help but walk towards the great furnace before him. Only after all the magical energy had been contained did the true state of the furnace fully reveal itself. It was truly covered in scars...
Originally, Aslan had thought that if this really was the wreckage of the god of fire and forge, he might have been able to use this forging instrument to forge the parts he needed. But now it seemed that this god's body had completely lost its original function. After he finished his research, it could only be used as raw material for his future weapon.
"Using the body of a god to forge my own weapon... just thinking about it is thrilling. It's just a bit of a pity. Why wasn't it Ares that I found?" After all, Ares was the one who specialized in combat and also resembled the ideal Gundam mecha. But one couldn't be too greedy. Having something was better than nothing.
Observing the surrounding environment, Aslan asked Melusine to place some equipment around the mountain that could use suggestion magic to make ordinary people leave. As for Aslan himself, he took out his long-unused forging hammer and began to continuously carve Faerie Letters into the mountain's interior, starting the internal remodeling of the mountain.
"Just you wait, Merlin! When I get back to the Isle of Britain, I'll be chasing you down with a Gundam! Hahahaha!!"
At the same time, in a region further east from this area, a large contingent of cavalry was rapidly approaching the Roman border.