You get a Viking Summon Marble upon completing the Forest of Spirits quest chain. You tend to get here around level 12 or 13 and the Monk is not recruitable until level 18.

The Viking is the first of the Axe type mercenaries that can be recruited. Axe mercenaries tend to have high HP and damage due to axes giving strength and vitality bonuses. Axe type weapons also hit the target directly to the left and right of your target making it useful for maintaining stun pressure. Unfortunately, Vikings probably have the lowest AP gains in the game. If you are dealing with anything that can potentially drain AP, the Viking is nothing more than a wall that takes hits for another mercenary. What makes the Viking useful though is his ability to use Freezing Axe. Freezing Axe instantly stuns a tar