Your account was registered in 2021, so I suppose you know how the forum operates. "Growing your account" shouldn't even be your primary focus. Reading and gaining more knowledge should be top priority. You can also use what you have to learn about Bitcoin and other things in this forum to help other new members who may ask questions in the future. Merits will just come in naturally.
Once you have earned a merit, you automatically earn the half value of that in sendable merits. With 1 merit you get 0.5 smerit,
Never seen 0.5 smerits, the minimum sMerit one can get is 1. So, 1 merit = 0 merits, 2 merits = 1 merit.