fourgas4:
That being said, it seems the second example is specifically tailored to receive 32 characters. Would I need to modify "numChars" to be equal to 2 (permitting a receivable range of 00-99)?
No, that is not the correct idea. The 32 just sets aside space for a message up to 32 chars long (and you can change it if you need more space).
Start by trying the second example in Serial Input Basics on its own with no changes at all. That should allow you to enter the numbers that you want and have them displayed.
If that works then you need to use the atoi() function to convert ascii to integer or the atof() function to convert ascii to float. That is illustrated in the parse example.
You might consider sending your data in the form <b,99> in which case the 3rd example and the parse example would be more appropriate.
You might also like to look at the simple user-input example in Planning and Implementing a Program
...R