Pagination in Asp.net core problems, only getting 10 items not making it faster?

i am trying to improve my pagination in Asp.net core web app... I want only to load 10 records each page. The first time i did this, i was loading all records, and then at the end i was just getting 10 of those and sending to the View, pretty bad since i am getting data twice and the first time im getting all records... (examples below) My approach now is getting actually the 10 items only.. but before this i count them all so that i can have the number of total pages... (examples below)

in another View without pagination i have like 13 records and i get them all, in that i take like 100-300 Ms more or less... So my point here is, with the seconds approach, why my time is about 2,60 seconds? shouldnt it be like 1 seconds max? Also, the difference between the first and seconds approach is minimum, and i have 8000+ records on the table... what am i doing wrong? how to improve this time?

my code for first approach:

ViewModelCentroCusto vmcc = new ViewModelCentroCusto()
            {
                CurrentPage = page,
                FirstPageShow = Math.Max(2, page - NUMBER_OF_PAGES_BEFORE_AND_AFTER),
                Departamentos = selectListdepartamentos,
                Empresas = selectListEmpresas,
                Anos = selectListAnos.GroupBy(x => x.Text).Select(x => x.First()).OrderBy(o => o.Text).ToList()
            };

            //atualizacao do viewModel com base em filtros, pesquisas e paginacoess
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchString))
            {

                vmcc.CentroCustos = _context.RH_CentroCusto
                .Where(p => anoSelecionado.Any() ? anoSelecionado.Contains(p.Ano.ToString()) : true)
                .Where(p => departmentoSelecionado.Any() ? departmentoSelecionado.Contains(p.Departamento.Departamento) : true)
                .Where(p => empresaSelecionada.Any() ? empresaSelecionada.Contains(p.Empresa.Codigo) : true)
                .Where(p => p.CentroCusto.Contains(searchString) || p.Descricao.Contains(searchString));
                
            }
            else {


                vmcc.CentroCustos = _context.RH_CentroCusto
               .Where(p => anoSelecionado.Any() ? anoSelecionado.Contains(p.Ano.ToString()) : true)
               .Where(p => departmentoSelecionado.Any() ? departmentoSelecionado.Contains(p.Departamento.Departamento) : true)
               .Where(p => empresaSelecionada.Any() ? empresaSelecionada.Contains(p.Empresa.Codigo) : true);
               
            }

            vmcc.TotalPages = (int)Math.Ceiling((decimal)vmcc.CentroCustos.Count() / NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            vmcc.CentroCustos = vmcc.CentroCustos.Skip((page - 1) * NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            vmcc.CentroCustos = vmcc.CentroCustos.Take(NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            vmcc.LastPageShow = Math.Min(vmcc.TotalPages, page + NUMBER_OF_PAGES_BEFORE_AND_AFTER);
            vmcc.FirstPage = 1;
            vmcc.LastPage = vmcc.TotalPages;
            vmcc.CurrentSearchString = searchString;
            vmcc.DepartmentoSelecionado = departmentoSelecionado;
            vmcc.AnoSelecionado = anoSelecionado;
            vmcc.EmpresaSelecionada = empresaSelecionada;

            return View(vmcc);

this is where i get all the records, then i get 10 of those, makes no sense at least for me, so i changed to this:

ViewModelCentroCusto vmcc = new ViewModelCentroCusto()
            {
                CurrentPage = page,
                FirstPageShow = Math.Max(2, page - NUMBER_OF_PAGES_BEFORE_AND_AFTER),
                Departamentos = selectListdepartamentos,
                Empresas = selectListEmpresas,
                Anos = selectListAnos.GroupBy(x => x.Text).Select(x => x.First()).OrderBy(o => o.Text).ToList()
            };

            //atualizacao do viewModel com base em filtros, pesquisas e paginacoess
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(searchString))
            {
                number = _context.RH_CentroCusto
                .Where(p => anoSelecionado.Any() ? anoSelecionado.Contains(p.Ano.ToString()) : true)
                .Where(p => departmentoSelecionado.Any() ? departmentoSelecionado.Contains(p.Departamento.Departamento) : true)
                .Where(p => empresaSelecionada.Any() ? empresaSelecionada.Contains(p.Empresa.Codigo) : true)
                .Where(p => p.CentroCusto.Contains(searchString) || p.Descricao.Contains(searchString))
                .Count();

                vmcc.CentroCustos = _context.RH_CentroCusto
                .Where(p => anoSelecionado.Any() ? anoSelecionado.Contains(p.Ano.ToString()) : true)
                .Where(p => departmentoSelecionado.Any() ? departmentoSelecionado.Contains(p.Departamento.Departamento) : true)
                .Where(p => empresaSelecionada.Any() ? empresaSelecionada.Contains(p.Empresa.Codigo) : true)
                .Where(p => p.CentroCusto.Contains(searchString) || p.Descricao.Contains(searchString))
                .Skip((page - 1) * NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE)
                .Take(NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE); 
            }
            else {
                number = _context.RH_CentroCusto
               .Where(p => anoSelecionado.Any() ? anoSelecionado.Contains(p.Ano.ToString()) : true)
               .Where(p => departmentoSelecionado.Any() ? departmentoSelecionado.Contains(p.Departamento.Departamento) : true)
               .Where(p => empresaSelecionada.Any() ? empresaSelecionada.Contains(p.Empresa.Codigo) : true)
               .Count();

                vmcc.CentroCustos = _context.RH_CentroCusto
               .Where(p => anoSelecionado.Any() ? anoSelecionado.Contains(p.Ano.ToString()) : true)
               .Where(p => departmentoSelecionado.Any() ? departmentoSelecionado.Contains(p.Departamento.Departamento) : true)
               .Where(p => empresaSelecionada.Any() ? empresaSelecionada.Contains(p.Empresa.Codigo) : true)
               .Skip((page - 1) * NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE)
               .Take(NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            }

            vmcc.TotalPages = (int)Math.Ceiling(number / NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            //vmcc.CentroCustos = vmcc.CentroCustos.Skip((page - 1) * NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            //vmcc.CentroCustos = vmcc.CentroCustos.Take(NUMBER_OF_PRODUCTS_PER_PAGE);
            vmcc.LastPageShow = Math.Min(vmcc.TotalPages, page + NUMBER_OF_PAGES_BEFORE_AND_AFTER);
            vmcc.FirstPage = 1;
            vmcc.LastPage = vmcc.TotalPages;
            vmcc.CurrentSearchString = searchString;
            vmcc.DepartmentoSelecionado = departmentoSelecionado;
            vmcc.AnoSelecionado = anoSelecionado;
            vmcc.EmpresaSelecionada = empresaSelecionada;

            return View(vmcc);

Now i only get 10 i think, then why isn´t getting wayy faster? Any help is appreciated