Help! Trying to set up dual monitors to laptop

I have a HP 14-ce3510sa laptop (i5) and have bought two Samsung monitors which I am trying to connect.
The laptop has an HDMI output, USBC and 2 x USB slots. The monitors each have a VGA and HDMI port.
I have managed to get one monitor set up by connecting the HDMI cable directly from monitor to laptop. Easy.
However, I can't for the life of me get the second monitor to connect and extend. I was able to connect it by using an HDMI extender, but then the two monitors just mirrored each other - but I want them to operate independently.
So I bought a USBC-HDMI cable and have that plugged in, but I get a pop-up on my laptop leading me to a USB troubleshooting page but nothing on there works.
I've seen youtube videos where people have bought extenders which plug into the USBC on the laptop, but I don't want to buy one because it seems that my laptop can't connect to a monitor via the USBC?
Any help here would be much appreciated!!

Thanks Rustys. I've done this for one monitor (through HDMI port) and it works. However, the second monitor (through USBC port on laptop to HDMI on monitor) isn't detected by the laptop. I spoke to MS support and they were just as confused as me - they kept saying I might need a software to make it work through the USBC port??