Talken

Taruken (タルケン) is a medium-range, damage-dealer member of the Sleeping Knights.

Appearance
Taruken is a skinny-looking Leprechaun youth with small eyes, tidy, brass-coloured hair and round, iron-rimmed glasses that give him the impression of a student. In battle, Taruken wields and wears Ancient-level equipment: he wears a copper-yellow light armour and wields a terrifyingly long lance.

Background
Like all of the Sleeping Knights members, Taruken suffered from an illness and thus he ended up in terminal care. Some time between the years 2023 and 2024, Thatch met the other members of the Sleeping Knights in a medical network, a virtual hospice named «Serene Garden», and immediately got along with the other members of the future guild. Together, they began traveling through various different virtual worlds and undergone numerous adventures. However, Ran (Konno Aiko), Clovis and Merida, 3 members of the Sleeping Knights died, and 2 more members were declared to not last past Spring, the members of the Sleeping Knights decided to find the most joyful, most beautiful and most exciting virtual world and work together to accomplish something grand in the world to permanently leave their mark on the world before disbanding once another member disappeared. Thus they came across ALfheim Online and decided to leave their mark on this world by defeating a Floor Boss with just 1 party to leave all of their names on the Monument of Swordsmen. However, their efforts to defeat the 25th and 26th Bosses proved to be in vain, as a large group of players would defeat the bosses soon after the Sleeping Knights were wiped by it. Considering that they had one open slot in their party, the guild decided to find a player outside their group who was as strong as Yuuki to help them defeat the 27th Floor Boss.

Mother's Rosario
On January 7, 2026, Taruken, along with the rest of the Sleeping Knights, welcomed Asuna, who had been brought to an inn in Ronbaru by Yuuki to help them with their quest to defeat a Floor Boss. After Asuna agreed to help them, everyone drank a toast and then agreed to meet up the next day for the boss battle, as Taruken and Nori were not free that night. The next day, the group gathered at the inn, equipped with Ancient-level gear. After Asuna finished evaluating the party’s formation, they all set out for the boss room. When they reached the Labyrinth, Sieunee cast several buffs successfully, while Nori cast a night vision spell and reached the boss room in a little over an hour, with only 3 encounters with regular monsters that they easily won by killing the leaders of the monsters each time. As they were halfway through the corridor to the boss room, Asuna sensed that something was wrong and with the use of a Searcher spell, discovered that a party of two Imps and one Sylph were hiding next to the boss room. As the party claimed that they were waiting for their companions and that they were not going to stop them from fighting the boss, the group entered the boss room after Sieunee re-applied her buffs and Taruken was assigned to attack the boss from the sides with Nori.

Sometime later, after the party was wiped out by The Four-Armed Giant and all of the Sleeping Knights, as well as Asuna, re-spawned at Ronbaru, Asuna immediately told everyone to gather at a place that they could not be heard from outside and explained that the party they had encountered had used «Peeping» to find out about the boss’s attack patterns without doing a scouting raid themselves and that the players would likely gather their entire guild for a raid soon. Everyone decided to rush to the boss room within 30 minutes before the guild could gather their members to have a chance at defeating the boss themselves.

28 minutes later, they arrived at the boss room, however, it was already blocked off by 20 players. As the players refused to let them pass, Yuuki assaulted the leader of the group, dealing enough damage for his HP to drop to the red zone. At that moment, a group of around 30 players arrived from the other side, but, just as the players were about to clash, Kirito arrived to the scene, along with Klein to hold of the reinforcements while the Sleeping Knights got through to the boss room. Thatch, along with Jun, would attack the opposing players from the front, while Taruken and Nori attacked from the sides. After Asuna took care of the opposing group’s healers, the rest of the party was easily defeated soon after and the Sleeping Knights rushed towards the boss room, sealing themselves in.

The battle continued for 40 minutes, until Asuna realised that the boss had a weakness and had Yuuki use her Mother’s Rosario against the boss’s neck, killing it with the last hit. After the battle, everyone activated the Teleport Gate on the 28th Floor and returned to Ronbaru, where they decided to celebrate their victory and Asuna invited them to come over to her house. After shopping for food and alcohol at Ronbaru, everyone traveled to Asuna’s house on the 22nd Floor, where, after a toast, Taruken spent his time talking about the wines in ALO with Nori, however, once they heard asking about joining the Sleeping Knights, they quieted down and stared at Asuna, until she changed the subject by suggesting going to the Monument of Swordsmen. There, they saw that their names were etched on the monument and took a group photo next to the monument. However, when Asuna told Yuuki that she had been calling her “older sister”, Yuuki suddenly widened her eyes and used her hands to cover her mouth while crying before abruptly logging out. After the incident, Taruken did not log into ALO for 3 days straight, until Asuna met Yuuki in the real world.

Several days later, Taruken, along with the rest of the Sleeping Knights, Asuna’s friends and even the leaders of the Sylphs, Cait Sith and Salamanders, Sakuya, Alicia Rue and General Eugene with their aides participated in a barbecue at Asuna’s house and, filled with enthusiasm, everyone decided to take a tour in the 28th Floor Labyrinth, where they ended up defeating the boss of the floor. Later, in February, the Sleeping Knights challenged and defeated the boss of the 29th Floor with a 7-member party. Later, in March, Asuna set out for a 3 day and 2 night trip to Kyoto with Shinozaki Rika (Lisbeth), Ayano Keiko (Silica), Kirigaya Suguha (Leafa) with the members of the Sleeping Knights joining them on the trip via the Bidirectional Communication Probe.

However, later that month, Yuuki’s condition worsened and she was about to pass away. The members of the Sleeping Knights, along with a large number of ALO players gathered on the 24th Floor to cheer for her as she left for the next world.

Abilities

 * Flight: As a member of the Leprechaun race, Taruken is capable of flying with the use of a pair of wings.
 * Voluntary Flight: Despite only playing the game for a short while, Taruken, like the rest of his guild, is capable of using Voluntary Flight, a skill that allows one to fly without the help of a controller.

Notable Achievements

 * Helped defeat the bosses of the 27th, 28th and 29th floors of New Aincrad.