Through caution and bribery

"Promised the boy steady meals and a release from the cycle of hero-slaughter most of you types go through. He's pretty happy to work with me, actually!"

You nod knowingly. If you had been offered a way to hide from endless slaughter last week, you probably would have jumped on it.

McDunkin pulls up the trapdoor in the back of his kitchen. You can see a set of wooden stairs, almost steep enough to be called a ladder, leading down to a mostly-empty cellar. McDunkin swings onto the steps first, going down facing the wall. You shrug and follow suit. It isn't until halfway down you realize he's been staring straight up the entire time.

"Don't want any my ass. Enjoying the view?"

"Gotta enjoy what my body can handle!" he shoots back with a guffaw. "Ya ain't gonna tell me you mind a little starin'?"

"I ain't," you reply, faintly echoing his accent, "but more and more I find there's a lot you ain't telling me."

"My life's story would take a year 'n more to tell. I ain't got that long, and neither do you. And neither does that 'taur!" The hermit gestures further into the cellar. You dismount the stairs and turn to look.

The back half seems to have been walled off. Or... sheeted off? A bunch of sheets, tarps, curtains, and even towels have been hung up to create the impression of walls. Between two is a gap wide enough to be called a doorway, but another sheet is hung in front of it just a few steps in. You would have to turn as soon as you went through... Oh.

"You built him a labyrinth?"

"As best I could in my small cellar here. Had some heroes gather all the stuff for it. Awful useful sort, those heroes."

Says the man keeping a monster in his cellar so those same heroes couldn't kill it a dozen times more.

"Just sit tight, I'll call him out. BRUNO! Ya got a vis'ter!"

"Did they bring the fuel? If it's something that won't burn hot enough... Wait, I do?" His voice is deep, as you would expect a minotaur's to be. Even his confused question at the end is low enough to rumble through your chest. After a few short moments, a bull's head pokes around one of the sheets. He squints at you, then his eyes open wide in surprise. "A demonkin? Here?"

"Hiya!" you answer with a cheerful wave. "I'm Shelia. You're Bruno, I take it?"

"For the interim, yes. Monsters can't receive names except from the system or a hero who contracts with them, but Mr. McDunkin has given me a term of address unique from others of my species for our convenience. You, Shelia... The system has named you, correct? I didn't realize there were any named monsters in these forests, let alone a demonkin beyond the simple imps near the border."

"That was me," you answer, adding a wink. "There wasn't enough sexiness around here, so fate brought me up to fill the void." He sounded incredibly intelligent, but you felt a little cheated that he hadn't rushed you the moment he saw you. When you heard 'minotaur' you were anticipating something big and powerful and beastial.

"Ah-huh. Um, congratulations. Are you here to help on the project? I think the material for the craft itself will work, but we've been struggling to find a fuel that-"

"Um, no. McDunkin said that..." Your voice trails off there. What had McDunkin actually said? You had assumed you were here to sate lusts, but the creature in front of you--despite seeing a half-naked succubus flirting at him--had no identifiable libido.

"After all the questions you been askin' 'bout babies, I figgered I'd just give you a girl and let you figger the rest out yerself. Now get to it!" McDunkin explained, ending with a slap on your ass to propel you toward the now blushing bovine.

"Mr. McDunkin, my questions were raised entirely out of my curiosity on where monsters originate from. I thought you, as one with years of experience, might know more than-"

"And I'm tellin' ya, just go and learn about it first hand! That's where babies come from, ya know!"

"That's where NHC's come from, I am aware. But monsters' methods of reproduction differ by-"

"Bull, bull. I seen it myself, once; watched a monster lady birth a calf lad like yourself, right up there in my livin' room."

This is probably your best chance to interrupt. "Bruno, let's just... go inside your home and... talk about it there. Okay?" Otherwise you won't get anywhere--either out of what seems to be a misunderstanding, or into Bruno's loincloth. Either works, though one of those options would be much, much better. He's intelligent, but that doesn't mean he's lacking a minotaur's muscles. You place a hand on one of his large biceps and gently guide him back into his 'labyrinth.'

"Good, good! You kids have fun now! I know when I'm not wanted! Just holler if ya need anythin'! Or holler just because ya need ta!" He cackles a few more times before climbing back up and out of the cellar.