yes. Tried to boot from here but it still hangs at the line reading:
"Using /etc/random-seed to initialize /dev/urandom."

Also, a couple lines above this one I get messages reading:
[ 10.278758] FAT-fs (sda1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
[ 10.291406] exFAT-fs (sdc1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.

Not sure how relevant this is, but I thought it seemed suspicious.

And here I was doing my best to keep a system that was free from systemd.. Seems like everything depends on being able to update that initrd; I'm just not sure how at the moment.

did you try any of the entries in the sub-menu?

yes; I made it to the point where loading messages were shooting up the screen but it just hangs on the message:
"Using /etc/random-seed to initialize /dev/urandom."

Are you sure it's hung? Have you tried to login remotely? Does Ctrl-Alt-F3 do anything? Have you tried booting with nomodeset? Urandom might be the last thing to happen before KMS starts, and if KMS isn't working you can get what appears to be a hung system.

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yes, I'm sure; I've previously waited approximately 8 hours for the system to continue on its own past this message. I'm not sure how to login remotely (I'm not even sure if I have ssh enabled) so I haven't done that. Ctrl-Alt-F3 does nothing. Just tried booting with nomodeset and it still hangs at the same message..

Seems like my most suitable option right now might be to just re-run the slackware install iso, as was mentioned previously in the thread..

I think there is something wrong with the initrd, try this

ignore the "cat: /proc/mdstat: No such file or directory" message mdstat has to do with raid, which I assume you aren't using.

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Might not be necessary here, but between the two above I would be adding sudo mount -a just to be sure. It's a necessity for btrfs users.

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Another thought is maybe it was a bad update, run slackpkg before the mkinitrd and grub-mkconfig.

Another thought, maybe a video problem, even through the screen doesn't respond, blindly login, press enter twice login as root, reboot. does it reboot?

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Took a re-look at the /etc/fstab, I'm sure this is the problem:
/dev/sdc1 is getting mounted over /dev

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So I followed the suggestions from both of you; and it seems like we're getting closer and achieving interesting results. Now I'm able to boot straight into the grub menu as before but with updated menu entries; but it still hangs at the same message as before;
"Using /etc/random-seed initialize /dev/urandom."

Interesting that you mention that; because when I tried $mount -a, as suggested by mrmazda, the output was
mount: /dev: /dev/sdc1 already mounted or mount point busy.
I'd be willing to bet its related somehow. But I'm ready to take any suggestions on how to pursue this and potentially fix the hang.

Also, I'm not sure if it's related to the fact that I'm running it through a live environment, but after running $slackpkg update, I came across a "FATAL" warning claiming that the Official Slackware Repository fails the CHECKSUMS.md5.asc download.
(I have a strong feeling it was due to being run in the live environment, though.)

I don't think it was a serious problem, but I thought it was worth noting I also received this warning;
warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.

Move /dev/sdc1 to some other mountpoint or just comment its fstab line to see what happens. There's no possible justification I can think of to mount any exfat filesystem on /dev/.

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If I had to guess, the line was added with the attempt to fix the "failed to get canonical path overlay" error. As mrmazada suggested add a # to the beginning of that line or change /dev/ to something else.

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This is slackware15, but you are trying to fix it with Manjaro livecd. First thing to ask, do you have huge kernel installed? If vmlinuz symlink is pointing at generic image, try pointing grub it at huge image? Most systems booting from huge kernel will give you a working console , no network slackware environment form which you can 1) reinstall grub, 2) reinstall lilo,3)edit grub.cfg, 4) edit lilo.cfg, 5) make new initrd.gz (which is not usually required to boot with huge). Maybe you tried this or don't have huge kernel image but I don't see it discussed and it is normal early step to attempt for slackware rescue. Also similar effect to use slackware install iso for rescue boot, did you attempt to get console only no network system that way?

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This did the trick; sdc is the usb stick I was using to live boot the desktop, so I changed the mount point to /dev/usb.. (I wasn't sure what was the most appropriate mount point to choose for this usb). I can finally boot into it normally for the first time since the beginning of this month. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to respond and contemplate what could be wrong with my system. This has been a very enlightening learning experience for me. It seems like it's officially time to mark this thread as [SOLVED].

Although, I'm still a little confused as to why and how mounting the sdc /dev/ could cause the system to hang.. it seems it has something to do with the fact that it was formatted as an exfat filesystem, according to mrmazda..?