Frodo Baggins (Hero, leadership) question on response

[Flrbb 75]

How do I have to understand the last sentence of that card? What happens when I quest successfully, but didn't spend the resource? Will I still reduce my threat?

The card reads:

Response: After Frodo commits to a quest, spend 1 resource from his resource pool to ready another questing unique character. If you quest successfully, reduce your threat by 1.

[player3351457 167]

4 minutes ago, Flrbb said:

How do I have to understand the last sentence of that card? What happens when I quest successfully, but didn't spend the resource? Will I still reduce my threat?

The card reads:

Response: After Frodo commits to a quest, spend 1 resource from his resource pool to ready another questing unique character. If you quest successfully, reduce your threat by 1.

 

You have to pay and trigger the response to get the threat reduction. Official response from caleb on this:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/277776-unofficial-official-rulings-thread/page/2/

Scroll until you see frodo