"I am willing to become your subordinate as long I can obtain the power to protect Ellie and win her heart!"
Although Jake was young, he wasn't dumb enough to pass on such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He knew that it was indeed safer if he waited for two more years to try his luck in the first awakening phase of transcendent superpower. But even that wasn't guaranteed since not everyone could awaken a superpower.
Not only did one need to awaken a good talent, but one also needed to awaken a good superpower. It was like doing gacha two times and hoping that both draws would yield excellent results.
If the awakening was unbalanced such as having a high superpower grade yet low talent, then the transcendent will likely be stuck at the lower levels but still a powerful existence among low-level transcendents.