Weaponized Mediocrity by James M. Epling

They survived their first year. Now they have to save everyone else.

The Curve Syndicate has done the impossible.

They broke Blackwood University's deadly bell curve.

Unfortunately, the university has noticed.

Now the student rebellion is spreading through the academy, and Sam Vance has a new weapon: mediocrity.

With an expanding network of students, Sam begins turning Blackwood's own academic system against itself. Impossible exams become manageable. Brilliant students learn to deliberately underperform. Bureaucratic regulations become weapons. And the faculty discovers that there is one thing more dangerous than a gifted student:

an entire student body working together.

But rebellion at Blackwood comes with a price.

As Sam gains authority inside the university, he uncovers deeper layers of the institution's supernatural hierarchy—and discovers that the school's most powerful students are trapped by ancient obligations of their own.

When wealthy heir Ben Montgomery becomes entangled in a deadly academic competition and a family contract that could cost him everything, Sam finds himself fighting an enemy that cannot be defeated with grades alone.

Meanwhile, beneath Blackwood's immaculate halls, the truth about the university's power source is finally coming to light.

The faculty is getting nervous.

The students are getting organized.

And Blackwood is preparing something much bigger than another semester.

Weaponized Mediocrity is the second book in Magna Cum Carnage, a dark academia horror series combining cosmic horror, dark fantasy, supernatural academia, institutional satire, student rebellion, deadly academic competition, gothic horror, and black comedy.

At Blackwood, mediocrity isn't failure.

It's a weapon.