In Mushoku Tensei with an A.I. Chip

One year later - Luke age nine years and six months

Luke stirred awake with a comfortable stretch of his arms and torso. At the same time, his ever present hyper alertness informed him that he was not alone in his room. But rather than reacting violently, he relaxed even more. 

Between his legs, he could feel a pleasurable sensation of warmth and wetness enveloping his manhood, going up and down his length. 

He lifted his comforter to reveal the bob-haired Clara sucking on his member. 

His maid, having sensed that her young master was awake and looking at her, simply smiled with her eyes and redoubled her efforts. 

Luke let out a satisfied hum and let her proceed with her new morning routine. 

Puberty had finally arrived for Luke a few weeks ago, and it had hit him like a goddamn sledgehammer. His hyperactive testosterone production exceeded the average hormonal production of other teens by like 100%. 

Growth hormone and somatotropin production from his pituitary gland and endocrine glands was similarly off the charts. 

It wasn't completely natural either. While the Greyrat men tended to mature earlier than others, Pilemon had conceived Luke when he was 9 after all, it was also a side effect from his early cultivation of the Knight Training Manual and its associated breathing technique. 

The breathing technique improved Luke's physique as a whole as time went on. Practicing it as early as he did led to stimulation of his growth hormones. 

It was not completely unexpected, but the combination of the Greyrat lineage's precocious puberty and the Pentabolt Vajra resulted in puberty coming in like a wrecking ball. 

Worst of all was his near constant state of arousal which was distracting to say the least, and he needed an outlet to relieve himself. It was fortuitous his family had assigned personal maids to him in anticipation of such an… intimate solution. 

Luke would have considered temporary chemical castration to prevent it from affecting his work if he did not enjoy the distractions so much. 

However, sex was too much of a time sink for such a frivolous pursuit. Already, he needed relief at least three times a day to prevent his needs from becoming too big of a distraction. 

Oral was sufficient for his purposes of releasing his sexual desires since he didn't need to put in much effort in relieving himself and left his hands free for his research. 

Clara and her sister Kiara, who turned 15 years old awhile back, took turns attending to his needs. One of his instructions for them involved dealing with his morning wood before he woke up early in the morning. 

Luke didn't consider himself as a particularly decadent person. This arrangement was purely for the sake of necessity. His enjoyment was really only a bonus. 

Hormonal impulses aside, the true tragedy of the arrival of his puberty was that his mana pool had finally stopped growing naturally. Well, perhaps tragedy was pushing it as the final months before hitting puberty had only seen his magic power increasing in single digit increments daily despite maintaining his routine training of exhausting his mana capacity. Compared to the hundreds of points of magic power he had gained simply from drinking potions, it was a miniscule improvement. 

It was expected, but no less regrettable. But at least now that the period of natural growth was over, he could focus his attention on other things since he no longer needed to spend time emptying his mana everyday anymore. 

On the eve of his puberty, Luke's stats looked like this:

[Luke Notos Greyrat (Split Soul)]

Strength: 3.9

Agility: 4.1

Vitality: 4.6

Spiritual Force: 401

Magic Power: 471.2

[Status: Healthy]

He let Clara's attentive ministrations bring him to a climax and finished inside her mouth. She devotedly swallowed his seed, not letting a drop spill from the vacuum tight seal of her lips around his girth. 

"Mm, thank you Clara." He muttered, feeling his morning wood being temporarily drained. 

His maid finished licking clean the length of his shaft and suckled on any remaining milky white beads from the head of his member before wiping it clean with a warm, wet cloth she had already prepared in advance.

"It is my honour, young master." She responded with a bright smile and a scarlet flush on her face, licking and smacking her lips as though she had just polished off a delicacy. 

Clara continued, "Does the young master want to clean up now or would you like to sleep in a little more?"

[Beep! It is currently 5:10am.]

It was still a little early. With the arrival of his puberty, his gains from practicing the breathing technique from Pentabolt Vajra saw his physical stats climbing steadily. 

Now that his vitality had reached 4.6, his need for sleep was a lot less than when he was a kid. Luke could function at a hundred percent on 4 hours of sleep a night. And if he took some energizing potions he could even stay up for a few nights, though those potions had a side-effect of acting as an aphrodisiac as well, giving plenty of energy to his little brother. 

Even so, he had gone to bed slightly later than usual last night as he had made a recent breakthrough in recreating Branded Swordsmen in this world. Or at least a functional recreation of the process used to create a Branded Swordsman. 

Branded Swordsmen originate from the Magus World. They were knights who underwent a special enhancement by using alchemical potions and magical runes. 

By branding a magical formation on their bodies and using alchemical reagents to modify their bodies, extraordinary power can be granted to regular humans. 

A standard Branded Swordsman could match a peak rank 1 Official Magus in combat prowess depending on range. 

The fighting power of rank 1 Magi could roughly be compared to Saint-ranks in this world. Specifically their warriors and only in close combat. But Saint-rank Swordsmen couldn't hold a candle to Branded Swordsmen generally. 

The magicians of this world would be seen as jokes by the Magi. 

Though the magicians in the Six-Sided World had the firepower, their reliance on incantations were debilitating. Taking one whole minute to cast a Saint-rank spell would be a death sentence when fighting a magus who could activate an innate spell instantly.

And their control was horrendous. From what he observed when his mentor Anthony demonstrated his spellcasting, their energy coefficient consistently ranged around 0.5 - 0.7. Which meant a solid 30% - 50% of their mana was being wasted whenever they cast their spells. 

This was because it had been centuries since the last great war between humans and demons. And war between human nations were rare and small in scale. The magicians here had become lazy and complacent. 

War was the impetus that drove innovation. In the Magus World, conflict was ever present. Even if you minded your own business and cultivated in solitude, greed would still lead others to come kill you and take everything that is yours. 

This was because cultivation resources were scarce in the Magus World, and there were never enough resources for every magi in the world. Just the Southern Coast alone was filled with constant wars between rival organisations for benefits.

The magicians in this world on the other hand were practically nurtured in a greenhouse. Their talent was predetermined from birth, and no method had been discovered for improving their mana pool - at least none that has been publicised. 

There was simply no need for them to go out and fight for resources when they could slowly accumulate their knowledge and experience to reach their innate limit. Additionally, the world was so peaceful that even war between nations was extremely rare outside of the Strife Zone. 

Regardless, having succeeded in recreating the Branded Swordsmen in the Six-Sided world meant that Luke, in theory, now had a method to mass-produce saint rank warriors, in physique at least if not in skill and technique. 

The ancient runes the Original used to create Branded Swordsman did not work in this world. Luke had to retrofit them with magic circles instead, and the elixirs also had to be recreated with ingredients from the Six-sided World. 

Even so, he succeeded. Theoretically at least. Not even the A.I. Chip could be 100% accurate 100% of the time. Now he needed a test subject, and thankfully he had twenty one willing and eager personal guards to choose from. 

Yes, instead of the initial 16 Luke had requested from Amarant, in the end he settled for 21 after the three days of recruitment. The difference between 16 and 21 in terms of expenses were negligible so Amarant did not refuse. 

A year had passed since their recruitment, and their training was going as well as Luke had predicted but had exceeded the expectations of everyone else. 

When Luke had first completed his selections, his family, the three saints and the master-at-arms had been dubious to say the least. It had looked to them that he had made his choice truly based on gut feeling rather than any empiric measurement. 

After all, the chosen candidates had a pretty wide variance in appearance and ability. Though they respected Luke's intelligence and magical ability, his insight and discernment was unproven and seemingly questionable

The one with the highest potential, Luna, was and looked like a 12 year girl. Jude had the appearance of a tough and strong young man, but anyone who talked to him soon walked away concerned that Luke had accidentally hired a retard.

The rest were a mix of young boys and girls between 10 and 17 of varying body shapes. The only commonality between all of them was that they had all walked out of the interview with Luke with their eyes bloodshot and burning in quiet resolve. 

Just like Luna, Jude and Marie, each one of them had sworn their life to Luke after their interview for their own reasons, whether it was for something Luke had already done for them and something he promised to deliver in the future. 

None of the rest fit the personal criteria Luke had for his bodyguards - young, scrappy and hungry. Physique and talent was only one aspect he was looking for. Propensity for loyalty was another and it was his first priority. 

Although the Notos household only spent around 25 Asura Gold coins on them annually for their salary, Luke had already forked out a dozen gold coins on each of them totalling hundreds. He spent the money on alchemical supplies in order to personally brew certain potions for his personal bodyguards.

Firstly, he brewed body enhancing elixirs to be taken weekly. These could gradually increase their physical stats by a total of up to 2 or 3 points. The drawback was that it sacrificed their vitality and lifeforce in exchange for an immediate boost in their strength, cutting down their lifespan by 10 to 20 years depending on how big of an enhancement they received. 

Then he also gave them Cerulean Ocean potions to increase their mana pool. And finally, and most insidious of all, he fed all of them a magical concoction that acted like a kill switch.

While he had prioritized disposition for loyalty during his recruitment, Luke was never someone who would fully trust someone he did not have complete control over. 

The magical concoction, poetically named Last Words, gave Luke the ability to end the life of the one who has drank the potion through spells infused during and after the brewing. 

Of course Luke hoped he would never have to use such a potion, as it would mean all the time, effort and energy put into raising them would be wasted. And it was only a temporary measure.