@April For the first question please refer to this support thread https://www.themehorse.com/support-forum/topic/removing-links-on-featured-slider/. Hope this might help you. If it is a coding customization then we don’t provide this in our support (we only provide small css tweaks, help users use the theme and option and fix the bugs in our free support). However, if our users try to make the coding customization themselves we are happy to guide theme like in the mentioned thread.
About the read more text changing option, this option is available in pro version you can purchase the pro version if you like for this or you may need to hire a developer to make this customization.
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